Quincy Quest: Power Retrieval
by GlaringEyes
Summary: Returning from Soul Society, Ishida Uryuu believed his Quincy powers were lost forever. Until his father tells him about a distant, long-forgotten Quincy branch in London, England. Their name: the Rooders. Bleach x Clock Tower 3 crossover. Ch09 up!
1. Chance

****After a long time reading fanfics, I've finally decided to write some of my own. This story came up from an idea I've had for a while: being both a Bleach fan and a survival-horror gamemaniac, I realized how similar the concepts of Quincies and Rooders are, so I'm writing a Bleach side-story about how Ishida recovered his Quincy powers after the Soul Society arc. It takes place between episodes 110-131 of the series.****

**This is my first fanfic. Reviews would be highly appreciated, be it praises, suggestions, corrections or criticisms (constructive ones, of course).**

**I do not own Bleach nor Clock Tower. They belong to Tite Kubo and Capcom, respectively.**

I will use the following typing standards:

"Normal speech"

'Inner thoughts'

"YELLING!"

_Flashbacks, written passages, translations_

**Power releases, foreign words**

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 01 – CHANCE<strong>

"_Want to know his pupil's name? His pupil's name is Uryuu, Ishida Uryuu. That man was Ishida Souken, my mentor and my grandfather." Said a young man clad in a torn and bloody black kimono, presumably stolen so he could sneak in Soul Society. His spiritual power overflowed around his body after learning the responsible for his grandfather's death._

"_So?" said the young man's opponent nonchalantly, apparently not surprised by the overflowing energy. This opponent was a weird-looking man, wearing a strange hat, skeletal visage make-up and a Gotei 13 captain attire. He held a three-bladed sword in his hands, which exhaled a poisonous purple smoke._

"_For the honor of the Quincies, I'll kill you!" the young man shouted. His name was Ishida Uryuu, a Quincy warrior. His opponent was Kurotsuchi Mayuri, the sadistic captain of the 12th Division of Gotei 13._

_Their fight proceeded on. Uryuu drew his Quincy bow and shot multiple energy arrows at Kurotsuchi, but despite his skills, he wasn't able to land a single attack on the captain, whether by his previous wounds or their difference in power. Therefore he had to call for a desperate measure..._

_Reaching his left hand to a small appendage in his right arm glove, he pulled and took it off , dismantling the entire glove in consequence. A gigantic spiritual energy vortex appeared immediately then, surrounding Uryuu. The amount of power surprised even Kurotsuchi, who didn't expect that. When the vortex faded, Uryuu's attire had changed to a half-armor which covered his torso's right side and his left shoulder. But the most notable feature was a quiver on his back from which a constant energy flame erupted. To add to the captain's surprise, the nearby walls and structures started to dissolve into spiritual particles, being promptly absorbed by the quiver. He had called for the most powerful Quincy release: __**Letzt Stil**__ (__German: Last Style__)._

_An energy arrow formed on his hand and he quickly fired it. Kurotsuchi dodged it, but, faster than the eye, the young man was already over him and fired another arrow, hitting the captain at point blank range and lifting a cloud of dust. When the cloud faded, Kurotsuchi was still alive, but badly wounded._

"_DON'T GET COCKY, BRAT!" yelled the enraged captain. "No lowly Quincy screws with me." Outraged with Uryuu's boldness, he decided then to finish him with his greatest release._

"_BANKAI!" he shouted, holding his sword in front of him. In the next few moments, the sword morphed into an enormous golden baby-headed creature, with a caterpillar body and exhaling a poisonous purple smoke as previously. "__**Konjiki Ashisogi Jizou**__ (__Golden Limb Paralyzer__)"._

_Uryuu was astonished by the monster, learning afterwards that Zanpakutou (__Soul Slayers__) had two stages: __**Shikai**__, the first stage, and __**Bankai**__, the second and ultimate stage, so powerful that only captain-level Shinigami were capable of wielding it. However, he was still determined to fight it and avenge his grandfather._

"_GO!" Kurotsuchi ordered, letting a sadistic laugh. Multiple blades erupted from the creature's chest and it charged at the young man._

_The Quincy summoned another arrow, pulled his bow string and, when the creature was close enough, loosed it. Despite the Bankai size, the arrow passed straight through its body, lifting a cloud of dust on its path. As the cloud faded, a very weary Uryuu was revealed, clearly feeling the side-effects of his own release. But his opponents were in much worse conditions: Konjiki Ashisogi Jizou was literally split in half and Kurotsuchi had a basketball-sized hole in his belly. The arrow had hit him as well._

_Breathing hard, the captain became even more enraged, but he knew he couldn't fight any further, so he had to escape. Resorting to a sneaky trick, he 'liquified' himself and crawled out of the battlefield, since he couldn't be hurt while in that form._

_Cursing on the enemy's escape, the young man felt useless. His "Letzt Stil" came with a price: in exchange for a temporary above-captain power, his Quincy powers would be lost forever as a nasty side effect. He was willing to accept that fate, but since his opponent had escaped, he realized to have given up his Quincy pride for nothing. And to add injury to insult, he started coughing blood: the Bankai poison was taking effect. It could have been his end, if it wasn't for an unexpected help: Kurotsuchi's lieutenant and daughter, Kurotsuchi Nemu, offered him the antidote for the poison. Uryuu firstly got suspicious of her aid, but ended up accepting it, as a token of her gratefulness for him not killing her captain and father/creator. After drinking it, he thanked her and resumed his mission to rescue Kuchiki Rukia from the Gotei 13._

* * *

><p><strong>Karakura Town, a few months later<strong>

It was a calm evening in the town and Uryuu was walking back home, returning from Kurosaki Ichigo's. He was called there so he could use his amazing sewing skills to fix Kon, Ichigo's plush toy and modified soul. The streets were empty and the only sounds nearby were the chirping crickets.

As he walked, he couldn't help but think about that fateful mission months ago. He, along with Ichigo, Yasutora 'Chad' Sado, Inoue Orihime and Shihouin Yoruichi had gone to Soul Society, more specifically to **Seireitei** (_Court of Pure Souls_), in order to rescue their friend, Kuchiki Rukia, from her unjustified execution. He didn't know about the others, but the happened events were still quite vivid in his mind. How could he ever forget them? He remembered protecting Inoue from the 7th Division 4th Seat, Jiroubou Ikkanzaka, stealing some Shinigami clothing so they could remain stealth, getting arrested by a certain blind captain, being rescued by a large spiked-haired captain and, finally, rescuing Rukia, after everything had been revealed to be a scheme plotted by the traitorous captain Aizen Sousuke.

But the memory that bothered him the most was his battle against the 12th Division captain, Kurotsuchi Mayuri. Uryuu hated him more than anything. After all, he was the man responsible for his grandfather's death. He was the one who deliberately delayed the Shinigami squad that could have saved Ishida Souken from a Hollow. He was the one who captured his soul soon afterwards and experimented on him like a guinea pig. Not only that, he was also the responsible for the loss of his Quincy powers and, with that, his pride. The thought that Kurotsuchi was still alive and unpunished by his deeds angered Uryuu to no end. 'He will get his in due time' the former Quincy thought.

Another thing that bothered him was his current helplessness. Stripped of his powers, Uryuu felt like a deadweight to the group. Despite keeping a few tricks up the sleeve, there wasn't much he could do to help his friends against the Hollows, and even less in the oncoming battle against Aizen. He simply didn't get used to the idea of being a commoner.

As these thoughts ran in his mind, unbeknown to him, the air behind him seemed to distort. Then a dark tear-like hole appeared out of mid-air, with a pair of giant gray hands reached out of it. Finally, a white-and-gray humanoid creature emerged. Besides its size, it bore a hole in its chest, a white mask-like face and a really long tongue which swung around like a snake. The young man immediately sensed the creature's hostile intentions and turned around in time to avoid a blast.

"A Hollow? Is it a Menos Grande?" he said, judging by the Hollow's size and power.

Although without his powers, he still could defend himself at least. He ran away, trying to keep distance of it. As the Hollow pursued him, he unzipped his shirt and fetched a few small silver-colored tubes from his inner pocket. Throwing them at the monster, he swiftly uttered a spell. As the tubes hit the target, a cube-shaped energy field emerged off them, severing the Hollow's arm. Those tubes were called **Gintou** (_Silver Tubes_) and they were containers for spiritual energy that allowed Quincies to use **Kidou** (_Spells_) just like Shinigami. These tubes were filled while he was in Soul Society. The Hollow, however, regenerated its lost arm as fast as it was severed and continued to attack.

'High speed regeneration?' Uryuu mused, seeing the battle wouldn't proceed as smoothly as planned. He then uncoiled a fine string from a device hidden in his arm and hooked its end on the nearest tree. He ran around the monster, in an attempt to wrap the string on its waist. Before he finished though, the Hollow's upper torso vanished.

'It disappeared?' Just as it reappeared behind him. 'It split in two?' the young man guessed. 'No, they were separate Hollows from the beginning.' He confirmed, as he saw the lower torso had a mask too.

The upper torso shot its tongue, the former Quincy dodging it. But the lower torso managed to tackle him, sending him to the ground. The monstrous tongue shot at him again, but this time he wouldn't have time to dodge. It could have been Uryuu's end... hadn't it been for an energy arrow that severed the Hollow's tongue before it connected the attack.

"My, my. So awkward of you... Uryuu." Said a stern man approaching the battlefield, the same one who fired the arrow. Said person was a middle-aged man, wearing a grayish-brown suit, glasses, with light-blue short hair and a Quincy bow in his hand.

"You are... Ryuuken!" Uryuu recognized, seeming surprised by the man.

"Still calling your father by his name. You never change, do you?" the older man coldly scolded.

The upper torso Hollow let a loud growl, angered for being wounded. Ryuuken just stared at it. "You're annoying." He stated, blasting the monster's head with a single arrow.

"What's going on?" the young man looked astonished by the sight. "Why do you have Quincy powers? I thought you had discarded them long ago, since you despised the Quincies."

"You're such a fool. I have no interest in the Quincies, but unfortunately my powers cannot be lost so easily as yours." The father adjusted his glasses and continued.

"However, despite my personal interests, Ishida Souken bequeathed all his powers and techniques to me, the man who holds the title of 'Last Quincy'." Ryuuken announced as he fetched a pentacle cross-shaped object out of his suit.

Uryuu immediately recognized the object as the Quincy cross previously worn by his grandfather. He was so surprised by the revelation, that he didn't notice the lower torso Hollow approaching him from behind. The monster, however, was quickly blasted by another of Ryuuken's projectiles. With the nuisance gone, the older man resumed.

"Uryuu, you went to Soul Society still unskilled, lost your powers and, driven by your small sense of pride, were unable to fulfill your objectives." Ryuuken scolded. The young man just lowered his head, feeling the harsh truth in his father's words.

"However... there's a way to restore your powers."

That immediately caught Uryuu's attention, his eyes widening as his mind processed what was just said.

"It's impossible!" he skeptically said.

"Hard to believe? But I assure you, it's the truth."

The young man pondered for a moment. His father probably wasn't lying, as he would have no reason to. Given his despise for the Quincies, what was expected for him to say was that there was _not_ a way to restore his powers, not the opposite. Thus he decided to go for it.

"What... must I do?"

Ryuuken stayed silent for a few moments before answering.

"I've told you your grandfather bequeathed to me the title of 'Last Quincy'." He paused and walked a few steps towards his son until he stood a few feet away from him. "But, in a certain way, that title is not exactly true."

Uryuu was shocked by that statement. What did he mean by that? He's actually not the last Quincy? So that meant...

"You're saying... there are still surviving Quincies?" he asked, surprised.

"Somehow yes," he nodded. Taking a breath, Ryuuken resumed the explanation. "Long ago, when Quincies and Shinigami still coexisted, a separate branch of the Quincies decided to take a different approach to Hollows. Instead of simply obliterating them, as the Quincy philosophy demanded, they'd rather pass judgement on them, allowing the souls to go Soul Society or sending them to the Hell if their sins were too heavy. That way, they didn't affect the balance of souls and were spared when the Shinigami hunted down the Quincies."

The son processed all that information. About one minute had passed as he spoke in an indignant tone.

"So this branch had escaped the slaughter by relinquishing the Quincy way and embracing the Shinigami's? How can they still call themselves Quincies?"

"They don't. That's why I've told you my title is not true, in a certain way. That branch is now called the Rooders."

"So what? You're suggesting me to train with them? With people who abandoned the Quincy cause? They might even had helped the Shinigami to hunt down the Quincies..."

"Uryuu!" the father cut in a harsh but calm tone "Just like us, the Rooders would never hurt living people, neither they would help anyone to do so. This principle never changed," he continued. "And you should learn to be more flexible in your beliefs. It was this kind of blind pride that led you to lose your powers in first place."

Once again, the young man felt the harsh truth reaching his ears. Why had he gone to Soul Society? To rescue Rukia, of course. But another part of the reason was that he wanted to prove the Quincy superiority to the Shinigami. He wanted to prove the Quincies' beliefs were more righteous than theirs. In the end, it had just turned out he wasn't as strong as presumed.

And what about his hatred for Shinigami? His belief that all of them were unreliable scum? There were Aizen and Kurotsuchi, of course. But how many times did Ichigo, Rukia, Yoruichi-san and even the large spiked-haired captain who took him out of prison proved him wrong? Wouldn't they deserve at least the benefit of doubt?

Finally calming down, Uryuu took a deep breath and asked. "So, can the Rooders indeed restore my Quincy powers?"

"They have some knowledge that might restore it. You may ask them for training to see it for yourself. But it's all up to you."

Then a thought came to Uryuu. "I don't see why you can't train me yourself." He inquired. If his father was also a Quincy, wouldn't it be easier if he did it himself?

"Because bringing Quincy powers back is something only known to them. And even if I knew it, still I'd rather you not to follow the Quincy path. But you're old enough to make your own decisions, so I just thought you should know of it."

The young man sighed in distress. Just as he hadn't changed at all, still calling his father by the name, Ryuuken hadn't either, still against him being a Quincy. It was an old wound, therefore he decided not to insist on that.

"All right. So, where can I find any of the Rooders?"

"Like the Quincies, there are currently very few of them, almost none," the older man said, gazing up to the sky. Then he looked back at his son. "You should go to London. An experienced Rooder lives there. Her name is Nancy Hamilton."

* * *

><p><strong>For those who don't remember Clock Tower 3 characters, Nancy Hamilton is Alyssa's mother.<strong>

**That's it for the first chapter. Please review and tell me what you thought of the plot.**


	2. Meeting

**I do not own Bleach nor Clock Tower. They belong to Tite Kubo and Capcom, respectively.**

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 02 – MEETING<strong>

**London outskirts**

Staring through the bus window, Ishida Uryuu was currently riding to the outskirts of London city. Just a few hours ago, his flight had arrived at Heathrow airport. A trip to England surely was expensive, but it would be worth it if his powers were retrieved. He recalled his friends' faces a few days ago when he had told them about his intentions of going on a trip to England.

"_Of all the times, why'd you decide to do it right now?" asked an outraged Ichigo. "You know we'll need your help in the war against Aizen."_

"_It's a training trip, Kurosaki. I'm doing it to sharpen my Quincy skills, not to play around. And rest assured, I'll be back in time for the war." Uryuu answered._

_That response seemed to calm Ichigo down, but Uryuu thought it's been way too easy. He suspected Ichigo somehow already knew of the loss of his Quincy powers and, therefore, accepted him to go just for that._

He couldn't blame him however. After Aizen's betrayal, the entire Soul Society has been in an uproar. As soon as the repairs in Seireitei were completed, preparations for the battle would begin. Since that included his group's training as well, this trip was some sort of preparation, in a way. Ichigo himself had also left for some training of his own, but he hadn't told where nor with whom it was.

_The others offered no resistance to the young man's trip._

"_Have a good training, Ishida." Chad said, in his ever calm voice._

"_Enjoy the trip, Ishida-kun! Take a lot of pictures and taste the delicious candies England has to offer! When you come back, I want to hear all the stories you've got!" Inoue cheerfully said. She was always so nice to everyone, never talking back, never questioning anyone's intentions, supporting everyone with her healing skills and her smile. He remembered those days when both of them teamed up to sneak in Seireitei, when he protected her from many dangers, when she almost changed clothes in front of..._

_'Wait! What am I thinking?' he mentally shouted. 'How could I imagine such lowly things about Inoue-san?' he chastised, recomposing himself._

"_Thanks, Inoue-san. But this is going to be a training trip. I probably won't have much time to wander around."_

_His Quincy pride would never let him admit his slight crush on her._

After smirking a bit, his mind turned back to more pressing matters. He thought about what his father had said about this Rooder, Nancy Hamilton. Ryuuken had admitted never meeting her personally, however Souken had once, probably while he was advocating to the Quincies and making amends with the Shinigami. By the time he had met her, Nancy was a beautiful 15-years old girl who displayed an amazing Quincy/Rooder power. That information made Uryuu quite enthusiastic. If he was going through any form of training, then it would be better to be trained by someone exceptional.

Also according to Ryuuken, Nancy owned a boarding house, in the outskirts of London, where she lived too. Before departure, Uryuu had sent a letter to the place, asking for a room to rent. A phone call or an email could have been faster, but he had found none on the phone book nor the internet. He had omitted the Rooder issue though. He'd rather talk about it personally when he met her.

The bus finally halted. It was his stop, so he got off the bus. Following the address written down on small piece of paper, he looked around for the house. Not a hard task, as it was the largest one in the neighborhood. The boarding house consisted of a two-floored estate, grayish brick walls, looking quite secular by the amount of growing moss. Stopping in front of the entrance double door, he rang the bell.

Some minutes had passed until someone answered the door. The young man eyed the person before him. A petite brunette girl, around his age, with shoulder-length straight hair, wearing a white shirt, green jacket and a blue-and-brown plaid skirt, just like schoolgirls uniforms in Japan.

"Good morning. Is this the Hamilton's boarding house? I've sent a letter for a lodge." He politely greeted.

"Oh, you must be Ishida Uryuu. I've got your letter. Please come in," the girl said, gesturing for him to enter. "My name is Alyssa Hamilton. Pleased to meet you, Uryuu-san." She presented, giving a light bow. She had a bit of knowledge on Japanese culture, therefore she knew people in Japan usually greeted by bowing and adding the suffix '-san' to their names.

'Hamilton? She must be a relative of Nancy.' He made a mental note.

"The pleasure is mine, Ms. Hamilton." He bowed back.

"Just call me Alyssa. No need for such formalities, Uryuu-san."

"All right. You may just call me Uryuu too, Alyssa." Normally, Uryuu wouldn't let anyone he had just met call him by his last name, but this girl was being so polite, it would be rude to not return the courtesy.

"You'd rather be called by your surname?" she asked, curious.

"Actually, 'Ishida' is my surname. In Japan, the surname precedes the name." He explained, aware that in western countries it was the opposite.

"Oh, I see. That's interesting, Uryuu," she said, smiling for adding another piece of information to her knowledge in Japanese culture. "This way, please. I'll show your room". She offered to carry his suitcase, but the young Quincy refused, since it wouldn't stand right for him to let a woman do the heavy work.

He looked around at the inner house. Decoration was mainly Victorian style. They were in a quite large hall, with stairways in the middle, leading up to the second floor, where he could see some doors. To the left, a double door led to what looked like a dining room. In the back, behind the stairways, there was another double door. This was the door they went through. As they passed it, there was another hall, smaller than the first one. Alyssa guided him to a simple door to the right.

"This is your room. I hope it's of your contentment." She said, opening the door.

As they entered it, Uryuu observed its features. It was a rather large room, with many bookshelves and a desk near the window. There was also a fireplace, with a picture of an elderly man over it. Speaking of pictures, there was a lot of them hanging on the walls, and even some strange masks too. Whoever lived in this room surely loved cluttering. Nonetheless, there was something missing...

"Excuse me, Alyssa. Is there a bed in this room?" he asked, looking around and not finding it.

"There it is." She chuckled, pointing behind one of the bookshelves. The bed was almost entirely hidden behind it.

The young man brushed his hand behind his head, smirking quite embarrassed for not realizing it earlier. "That's true. Sorry."

"It's okay," she reassured. "This room belonged to my grandfather. He was quite workaholic and therefore it looks like an office rather than a bedroom." She didn't notice, but Uryuu could sense a faint tone of sadness in her voice as she mentioned her grandfather. It picked his curiosity, yet he thought it'd be better not to pry into it.

"Thanks, Alyssa." He said, setting down his suitcase on the desk.

"You're welcome. Breakfast will be served soon. The dining room is right beside the main entrance, as you probably saw. The restroom is on the upper floor. So is my room. If you need anything, just tell me." She said, bowing once more and taking her leave.

'Breakfast, huh? That's a good opportunity to ask about Nancy Hamilton and the Rooder training.' The Quincy thought as he unpacked his stuff.

He then glanced around the room. 'Why do I get some nasty feeling about this room? Like something really bad has occurred here?'

Anyway, he decided to shove those thoughts off his mind and worry about his current situation. With the unpack done, he went for breakfast.

* * *

><p><strong>Hueco Mundo, Las Noches palace<strong>

Far from there, in a sandy, desert-like place, stood an all-white building, in contrast to the ever-dark sky. Inside that structure, a man was sat on a throne, resting his right leg over his left, his right elbow on the armrest, supporting his head on his right fist. He had short brown hair and was clad in an all-white attire, with a sword beside him. This man was Aizen Sousuke, one of the traitorous captains of Gotei 13, and this place was the Las Noches palace, his new lair.

He seemed in deep thought, as someone approached his throne, breaking his concentration. This someone was a younger man, also clad in an all-white attire, with grayish-purple short hair, fox-like eyes and an ever-grinning expression on his face.

"What do you want, Gin?" Aizen said, not needing to look at the other traitorous captain to recognize him.

"Oh, captain Aizen. I just came to ask about those newcomers ya sent to da Living World. What's da reason?" Ichimaru asked, stopping a few feet away of Aizen.

"Nothing extraordinary. I just asked them to do a few errands there."

"Ya mean ya sent them after da Quincy boy? Why didn'tcha send any of our Espada?"

"That Quincy boy had lost all his powers and got separated from the group. There is no need to mobilize our strongest Arrancar just to wipe him out. And besides, I'd like to see those newcomers' skills in actual combat."

"But if he'd lost his powers, why bother going after him?" Ichimaru questioned, in an almost-mocking tone.

"You're quite talkative today, Gin. Is there any reason for that sudden interest?" Aizen said, turning to his subordinate and giving him a questioning look.

"I'm a naturally curious person. And even if ya say so, one of those newcomers is quite powerful, maybe enough even to be admitted into da Espada."

Aizen smirked. "It's true. One of them is very powerful. That's the reason I've sent them. The Quincy boy is quite intelligent and there's the possibility he might retrieve his powers and become really strong. I'm taking this opportunity to get rid of a possible future nuisance."

"Oh, now I see. If they succeed, good for us. If they don't, they're disposable and it won't be a great loss." Ichimaru concluded.

"Exactly."

* * *

><p><strong>Hamilton House, London<strong>

Uryuu walked to the dining room, where he could see that the breakfast had already been served. The furniture inside consisted of a large rectangular table with many chairs around it, a chandelier hanging from the ceiling and many windows providing sunlight to the room. Alyssa was bringing a plate with a tea kettle and a bread basket on it. He also noticed a young man sat down at table, who noticed him as well as he entered the room. That man was also around his age, with short brown hair and a somehow goofy face, reminding Uryuu of Ron Weasley, from the Harry Potter movies. He was wearing a blue-and-orange stripped shirt and white pants. Except for them, the entire place was empty, so they were probably the only lodgers in the house.

"Ah, Uryuu. You arrived just in time," Alyssa said, noticing him and placing the plate down on the table. She gestured to the other man to present him. "This is Dennis Owen, my boyfriend. He helps me to run the boarding house".

'She runs this place?' the Quincy thought, a bit perplexed. 'At a such young age?'. But then he recalled that himself has been living on his own since his grandfather's death, so there should have been no surprise. He turned to the other young man.

"Nice to meet you." Uryuu greeted, giving a nod to Dennis.

"Nice to meet you too." Dennis politely replied, also nodding.

They all sat down at the table and started breakfast. A few moments of silence passed so they could fill their cups up and put food on their dishes.

"So, Uryuu, what brings you to London?" the girl asked, wanting to start a conversation.

The Quincy decided to not bring forth the Rooder issue yet and came up with a fake story.

"Research. I'm doing a paper on western history and I thought London would be a good place to start."

"So you're a college student? What are you studying?" Dennis asked.

"History. I'm a freshman in an university in Japan."

"That's great," Alyssa praised, taking a sip from her tea. "Are you searching for something specific in London's history? Maybe we could help you since my family has lived here for generations." She also offered.

It was the point Uryuu was waiting for.

"I'm particularly interested in local legends. You know, there was a particular one I came across, which told of people who protected humans from evil spirits, using bow and arrows made of spiritual energy."

That reference made Alyssa and Dennis' eyes widen. They knew way too well about the legend he was talking about. Their reaction didn't go unnoticed by Uryuu, so he was able to conclude they were aware of the Rooders' existence.

"Interesting legend," the girl said, in a slightly nervous tone, putting her cup down. "Unfortunately I've never heard of such legend."

"Yeah, that's so crazy! No way it's possible! How could a bunch of people fight evil spirits armed just with bows and arrows? Not that evil spirits exist anyway, and if they do, it's not like they would chase humans with blades... OUCH!" Dennis cried, being kicked in the shin by Alyssa below the table. He was clearly talking too much. And even if he wasn't, his gestures were so strained and his voice tone so rushed that anyone could guess he was lying.

Seeing the two were uncomfortable with this, the young Quincy decided to change his approach, so they could see he wished no harm. "Back in my country, there is a similar legend. There was a group of warriors who could manipulate spiritual energy, not only their own, but also the environment's. They could absorb spiritual particles from their surroundings, gather them in a concentrated form and use them as weapons. Their weapon of choice was the bow. With their skills and a strong code of honor, they would protect mankind from evil spirits who appeared to feast on weaker souls and to harm humans."

So he fetched a Gintou from his pocket and displayed it on his palm over the table. "The reason of my interest in that legend is because I'm a descendant of those people." He seriously stated, making the Gintou in his hand glow in a blue aura. It was faint, but it exhaled a very well-known energy to the girl.

Alyssa and Dennis gasped at the sight, getting so astonished that a toast fell from Dennis' hand. The girl could not believe it: someone with the same powers was right in front of her. Someone from a far away country. And a man, above all, since she believed Rooders were female-only. Recomposing herself from the shock, she asked.

"Are you... a Rooder?"

"I'm a Quincy. A different faction from the Rooders. But our powers share the same baseline."

She simply didn't know what to think, she had never met another person, besides her mother, who possessed Rooder powers. Heck, she hadn't even known they existed before her 15th birthday. Maybe she'd feel happy there were others like her. Or maybe feel sad, as she wished to forget all the nightmare that had befallen her.

"Quincy? Never heard of them, but... this energy... there is no doubt. It's a Rooder's." She said, staring at the glowing Gintou.

"Man, no way could I have guessed there were Rooders so far from here." Dennis commented.

"I've told you, I'm a Quincy." Uryuu repeated, in a slightly angry tone, not fond of being called a Rooder.

Dennis was a little taken aback by the other guy's remark, but decided to let it pass. He was a customer after all.

"All right, _Quincy_," Dennis said, putting a bit of sarcasm in the last word. "So what did you really come for?"

Now it was the time for Uryuu to bring in the issue. "Forgive me if I intrude on anything, but would you happen to know someone named Nancy Hamilton?"

The girl's face frowned slightly. "She's my mom. What do you want with her?"

The Quincy widened his eyes a bit after learning Alyssa was Nancy's daughter and not simply a relative, still proceeded to answer.

"Actually I have a request for her. I wish to go through the Rooders' training."

Alyssa looked at him, with a confused expression. "Why do you wish to be trained? I mean, don't you already have Quincy skills?"

"The reason is... due to certain circumstances, I have... lost my Quincy powers," he said, giving a pause between the sentences. It was a rather sensitive subject after all and he really didn't want to tell them yet. "And I've heard your mother is a great Rooder warrior, so I thought she might help me to retrieve them."

The girl's eyes downed a bit. Some moments passed as she processed everything he said, until she finally spoke. "Sorry for that, Uryuu. But unfortunately, my mom has passed away a few years ago."

That information hit Uryuu like a bomb. She was _dead_? His only hope of retrieving his Quincy powers was _gone_? All this trip was for _nothing_? He couldn't believe it. How would he face his friends then? They were all expecting him to succeed and now he was going to return with empty hands. And his father? Why did he give such an useless piece of information? Shouldn't he have at least verified if Nancy was still alive before hinting him? How crappy of a father could he...

'My father!' came a sparkle of hope in his mind. Just recently he had learned his father still retained his Quincy powers, even against his will. That meant Quincy, and probably Rooder powers were passed down to their descendants, one way or another. Nancy may have passed away, but her daughter still...

"Alyssa, do you possess Rooder powers as well?" he asked, a bit of excitation in his voice. Normally he wouldn't act that blunt, however expectation sometimes made one forget about subtleties.

Her eyes widened. She was a little reluctant to give the answer, nevertheless did anyway. "Yes, why do you ask?"

"Do you think you could help me in my training?"

Both Dennis and Alyssa exchanged a look at his request, followed by a grimace on their faces. Alyssa's head lowered a bit and some seconds went by until she answered. "I'm really sorry. As much as I want to help you, I'm no longer in the Rooder path."

An awkward silence fell in the dining room.

"What do you mean you're no longer in the Rooder path?" asked a rather stunned Uryuu.

"I gave up on being a Rooder. I couldn't stand it anymore, so I quit using my skills." She almost whispered, as though she was ashamed with that.

"But... what about the people? And the weaker souls? Who's going to protect them?" questioned an indignant Uryuu. "Despite our differences, isn't also a Rooder's job to defend them from evil spirits?"

"I'm sorry. When I awakened my powers, for a while, I thought I could follow that path. But... in the end... it just got scarier and scarier," she gulped, as though it was difficult for her to continue. "I wanted to leave all of that. I wanted a normal life, to have friends, to have a family, so... I quit my mission as a Rooder." The girl finished in a trembling voice, her eyes welling up with tears.

Uryuu's expression softened, he was still indignant, but couldn't blame her for that. Dennis walked up to her and put his hands on her shoulders, comforting her. He also had a saddened face while looking at her, understanding her reasons. Then Alyssa stood up from her chair.

"Again I apologize, but I can't help you in your training." She said, taking her leave from the room. Her boyfriend left shortly afterwards too, leaving the young Quincy alone in the room.

'What should I do now?' he thought, staring down at the floor and clenching his fists.

* * *

><p><strong>London outskirts, not far from the Hamilton House<strong>

In the woods over a hill, the air seemed to distort. It was night and the place was desert, so nobody noticed it. Suddenly, a tear appeared out of mid-air, enlarging to a man-sized dark hole. This phenomenon would be defined by some as **Garganta** (_Spanish: Throat_), a passageway from Hueco Mundo to the Living World.

After a few moments, two figures emerged from the Garganta. Due to the darkness, their features were not distinguishable, but it could be seen they were quite burly. They glanced around for a while and it could be sworn they were grinning, as they sighted the Hamilton House in horizon.

* * *

><p><strong>That's it for chapter 2, folks. Please review and tell me how did you like it so far.<strong>

**Action starts on next chapter.**


	3. Shadow of the Past

**My thanks to DementedDebi for beta-reading my story. I've corrected some grammar mistakes in past chapters.**

**I do not own Bleach nor Clock Tower. They belong to Tite Kubo and Capcom, respectively.**

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 03 – SHADOW OF THE PAST<strong>

**Hamilton House**

It was 2:00 a.m. yet light still could be seen in Uryuu's room. Just a few hours before, he had brought his request for Rooder training, which was denied. Not because they didn't trust him, but the only available one to give the training had quit the Rooder's path. For a while, he pondered about what to do next: he couldn't simply return home empty-handed. Alyssa wasn't willing to help in his training, however she had nothing against him doing some research on his own, even saying he was more than welcome to read the books and journals in his room.

And that's what he's been doing since then. So far, Uryuu hasn't found anything on how to restore his powers, but came across some very interesting facts about the Rooders' history. One thing was that their actions dated from very ancient times, since the Roman Empire. That made sense, as his grandfather had told him the Quincies' story also dated from a similar age. They were still a single group at that time, until about 200 years ago, when the Shinigami's slaughter took place. Since then, that particular Quincy branch relinquished its name and adopted the Rooders' denomination.

Another thing was that the Rooders were mainly concentrated in Europe. That lifted a theory the Rooder's philosophy was strongly influenced by Christian beliefs. Instead of obliterating evil spirits, completely wiping out their existence, Christianity would rather pass judgement on those souls, sending them to Heaven (or Soul Society, as he knew) or to Hell, according to their sins, just like the Shinigami did. Their definition of 'Hell' was quite uncertain, but the Shinigami usually took it for the realms in-between void, or even Hueco Mundo.

He also learned Rooder warriors were female-only. Men could also have Rooder blood in their veins, though their powers wouldn't manifest: they could only pass that heritage to their descendants. That part surprised Uryuu a little, given all the Quincies he knew were men, i.e., his grandfather, his father and himself. But, reminding a bit of natural selection, there would be an explanation: in an environment where men were usually raised to be physically enhanced and have strength-demanding jobs, like the army, it was up to women to develop spiritual enhancements. As generations passed, women would be much more likely to have control over their spiritual powers, a requirement to manifest Quincy/Rooder powers. Thinking like that, it was no wonder the 11th Squad of Gotei 13 was composed by battle-thirsty thugs, while the 4th Squad had many women skilled in healing, which required a lot of spiritual control.

But the part that caught most of his attention was about the so-called 'Entities', beings the Rooders should combat. Apparently, Entities were evil spirits which could possess humans (those possessed would be called 'Subordinates') to kill others and increase their own powers by feeding on their victims' suffering. That reminded him immediately of the Hollows and as they fed on weaker souls for the same purpose. The only difference was the Entities didn't devour the souls directly, instead kept them in an eternal cycle of suffering, as to continually produce their source of nourishment. That very thought made the young man's stomach knot in disgust: it was bad enough the Hollows to attack and devour innocent souls, but to keep torturing souls in order to feast upon their misery, that was the sickest thing he ever heard. If he ever saw one of those Entities, he'd be more than happy to eliminate it.

There were also hints of a ceremony named 'Ritual of Engagement', yet nothing enlightening. Strangely however, that information seemed to have been intentionally omitted, and the journal pages on that issue seemed to have been ripped out. It picked Uryuu's curiosity: what is this ritual? Why would someone hide information on that ritual? Was it dangerous? Does it have anything to do to the fact Alyssa quit being a Rooder? Surely it would be easier to just ask her, but she looked so distraught this morning, he decided not to bother her for now.

However, time urged. He was still at the starting point and no progress has been made on the main issue: the retrieval of his Quincy powers. He had asked Alyssa if she'd happened to know other Rooders, but unfortunately her deceased mother was the only one she knew. Indeed they were really few nowadays, just like Ryuuken had told. So, the only thing he could do for now was continue to search through the material and hope for any findings.

Meanwhile, in the main hall, Alyssa was walking down the stairs, heading to the kitchen to get some water. Just as Uryuu's, her mind was restless, but for different reasons: she felt stressed for reminding of that nightmarish day, happy that there were other people who shared the same vision of protecting mankind from the Entities, and guilty for not being able to help Uryuu to restore his powers. That last feeling in particular bothered her the most, since her own powers wouldn't last much longer and by the time she reached the age of 20, there would be nothing left. Normally, Rooders would marry and give birth before that, so their children would continue their missions. But the girl wasn't willing to become a mother so soon, so if she didn't help him now, there wouldn't be a chance in the future. Nevertheless, her mind still denied leaving the calm life she was leading to reclaim her mission as a Rooder.

All those thoughts and events were taking the toll on her, to such an extent she had to leave the classroom earlier today. Dennis walked her home and decided to overnight there, just in case she needed something. Right now, he was sleeping in one of the house's rooms.

Reaching the kitchen, she walked up to the sink. It was dark, still she didn't bother to turn on the light, since the street lamps provided just enough to distinguish the objects. As she filled the cup, she could swear having heard noises coming from the hall. The girl went to the door separating the kitchen and the dining room and overlooked the hall from there. She saw nothing.

'Probably only my imagination. I'm starting to hear things with all that's going on.' She assumed, finishing her water and placing the cup on the sink. She headed back to her room, but as she was about to enter the hall, an eerie feeling came to her. A feeling which unfortunately wasn't strange at all.

'What's that? It feels like a killing intent.' Her mind warned. Her heart started pounding faster and a cold chill went through her spine. She halted and stepped slowly inside the hall, eyes and ears on alert for anything. Even so, she never spotted the figure on the second floor, as it jumped down on her.

"ALYSSA!" shouted the figure in a rough voice, as it landed soundly on its feet, right beside her.

If Alyssa hasn't been on alert beforehand, she might have had a heart attack. By impulse, she jumped back, just as a blade impaled the floor she was standing milliseconds ago. Immediately then, she ran back to the dining room and went to the other side of the table, like putting it between her and the attacker. As the figure followed behind, the girl tried to identify it, but the darkness allowed her only to distinguish its size, which was huge. The stalker raised its blade and, with a single sweep, split the table in half, leaving nothing standing to protect her.

The figure slowly approached Alyssa, until she got cornered against the wall. Fear was stamped in her eyes, her heart almost jumping out of her ribcage, her entire body trembling like she was cold... until her hand touched something on the wall: it was the light switch. An idea suddenly came to her mind. She shut her eyes tight and turned the switch on, illuminating the entire room... and blinding temporarily the pursuer. As she opened them, they widened: she couldn't believe in them.

"You!" she exclaimed, recognizing the attacker. How could she ever forget him? The bulky stature, the dirty brownish clothes, boots and gloves, the leather mask covering all his head, except for the eyes and lower face. The only difference was a sword in his hand, instead of a sledgehammer, and a strange hole in the middle of his chest area. It was him, the very first Subordinate she fought on that horrible day: the assassin known as 'Sledgehammer'.

"You bitch!" Sledgehammer cursed, his eyes still stinging. He started swinging his sword blindly, hoping to hit something. Alyssa however managed to outwit him, and escape into the hall.

As soon as his sight got clear again, he turned around and saw the girl running upstairs. So, in a stunning display of agility, he jumped high enough to reach the stairway top and land right in front of her. Immediately, Alyssa stopped in her tracks.

'Oh God, oh God! This can't be true! This can't be happening!' these words furiously rushed through her, still refusing to believe her eyes. "Why are you here? I thought I defeated you last time." She questioned in a trembling voice, slowly backing away from the assassin.

"I was given a second chance. A chance to prove my killing skills," Sledgehammer said, grinning sadistically and slowly approaching her. "All thanks to Lord Aizen."

'Lord Aizen? Who might that be?' the girl mentally asked. As she backed away, she realized to have reached the stairway bottom. Turning around, she attempted to run, but was knocked down to the floor when the assassin hit her with the butt end of his sword.

Lying on the floor, Alyssa saw it was useless to run, since he seemed faster than before. She didn't even have her Rooder weapons with her right now, so there was no way to fight back. The Subordinate stood over her and raised his sword.

"Before I kill you, there's something I need to know: where's the Quincy-boy?" he interrogated.

'Quincy? So they're looking for Uryuu.' She thought, quite surprised. Nevertheless, despite being frightened, she would never be a snitch.

"I don't what you're talking about." She answered.

"Playing dumb, huh? Whatever... I'll have my revenge on you and then I can search for him." He commented, finally bringing down his sword. Alyssa shut her eyes and embraced herself for the inevitable. She waited for death, begging it to be at least painless.

However, before Sledgehammer could give the final blow, a pentagonal cross-shaped structure suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking his swing.

"What the...?" he said, surprised. He became even more surprised when the structure started to expand sidewards, completely enveloping him in a coffin-like silver case. The girl, who had already opened her eyes, stared at the whole situation, confused about what had happened.

That was, until she spotted Uryuu standing at the door behind the stairway. He had a few Gintou in his hand, so she concluded he got awakened by all that ruckus and used some sort of spell to trap the assassin.

"Alyssa, run! I'll hold him off." The young man shouted, turning to the girl. For a moment, she pondered what to do: she could run, of course, but she couldn't simply leave Uryuu alone to fight the Subordinate. She had to help somehow. That's when Sledgehammer's bangs and shouts from inside the case interrupted her pondering.

"Hurry up! This spell can't hold him for much longer." He reinforced, to which Alyssa promptly attended. She ran upstairs and went through a double door. At the very same time, the case started to crack, shattering next and releasing the trapped assassin.

"You thought this low-level spell could hold me?" Sledgehammer asked, glaring at the young Quincy.

"That has never crossed my mind. I just wanted to let Alyssa escape." Uryuu answered, getting into fighting stance.

"Hah, your efforts are useless," the assassin mocked. "Without your powers, there's no way you can defeat me! I'll just kill you as Lord Aizen requested and then I'll get that wretched girl."

'Aizen! Does he mean Aizen Sousuke, from the Gotei 13?' the astonished young man noticed.

"Are you working with Aizen? What's he intending to do?" Uryuu questioned, narrowing his eyes.

"No need to answer it, because you're going down!" Sledgehammer threatened, jumping on his target, with his sword raised.

Upstairs, a much dismayed Alyssa ran through a hallway. No matter how much she had wished for a normal life, trouble seemed to pursue her. When she took it for over, a Subordinate she had personally sent to Hell returned, lusting for revenge. Not only that, he was targeting her guest as well. She felt scared for having to relive all that nightmare again, and frustrated for her calm life to end so abruptly. But whatever happened, for now she had only one choice: to fight.

She was so focused on her musings that didn't see Dennis walking right in front of her and almost bumped into him. He probably got awakened by all the ruckus too.

"Alyssa, what's going on? What's with all the noise?" he nervously asked.

"Dennis, I can't explain right now, but a Subordinate returned. You must help Uryuu downstairs." She demanded, just passing by him.

"What? A Subordinate? And you, where are you going?" he asked, being ignored by his girlfriend.

Alyssa however knew very well where to go. What she had to do. Entering an ample living room, she headed directly to the fireplace, which was extinguished. There she crouched and started crawling inside it, reaching a secret passageway. It led to a small room, a room she wished to never come back: the headless white statue standing at the back, its shattered head on the floor and, most important, hidden behind it, a single-gripped glass jar, finely sculptured after a female shape.

The girl took the jar in her hands and stared at it, memories instantly coming into her mind. Her loyal weapon, with which she had dispatched several Subordinates to their deserved fate and saved her mother's soul. And once more, they would have to fight alongside. That was a Rooder's weapon: her purifying vial of holy water.

Downstairs, things were getting tough for Uryuu. Had he his Quincy powers, there would have been no problem to obliterate his opponent. But, since he didn't, at most he was succeeding to annoy Sledgehammer.

"Tilt the goblet to the west – Emerald Grail!" he uttered, casting a bunch of blue lightnings onto the Subordinate, causing a small explosion. That technique however didn't cause much damage and the assassin continued to attack.

'Damn it!' the young man cursed, while dodging the sword swings. 'Even my **Wolke** (_German: Cloud_) technique is inefficient against him. What's this guy made of?' He looked at his remaining Gintou tubes. 'I'm almost out of Gintou. Soon I won't be able to cast spells anymore'. He clenched his teeth, his situation was getting desperate.

At that moment, someone jumped on Sledgehammer's back from the second floor and tried to restrain him. It was Dennis, who, as expected, didn't hold on very long and ended up being grabbed and tossed to the wall. Uryuu ran to the other young man to see if he was hurt. Fortunately he was OK, just a bit dizzy from the impact. The assassin nonetheless wasn't intending on leaving any of them alive.

As he raised the sword preparing for another strike, suddenly some liquid splashed him in the face. Just next, Sledgehammer grabbed his face and started yelling "It burns, it burns!", while steam evaporated from the liquid. When the two young men glanced to whom splashed the liquid, they saw Alyssa on the upper floor, with a water jar in hands.

"Guys, quick! To the backyard!" she beckoned, disappearing through a door in the second floor.

They looked at each other, a bit confused, but decided to comply anyway, while the Subordinate was still in pain. They ran to the kitchen and went through the door to the backyard. The entire place was quiet, with no person in sight, which made Uryuu wonder how couldn't the neighborhood hear any of the uproar inside the house. A few moments later, they saw Alyssa climbing down the outside emergency stairs from the second floor, rejoining them.

"Alyssa, what now?" Dennis asked, a hint of fear in his voice.

"We should go to the woods. We can't risk having our secrets exposed if we fight here." Uryuu answered in her place. The girl nodded, knowing it would be the best.

The trio was running to a nearby forest, when the backyard door burst open, revealing a very pissed-off Sledgehammer, who proceeded to chase them. As they were deep enough in the woods, Alyssa halted and prepared to fight. A magic rune appeared beneath her feet, while her entire body was surrounded by light. The jar in her hands started floating and changed its form into something resembling a gauntlet. The moment she reached for it, two long spiritual energy appendages erupted from the gauntlet, giving it a bow format. She was now a complete Rooder warrior.

Dennis was already used to see it, but Uryuu watched her summoning in awe. 'So that's the Rooders' summoning of power!' he thought. He could feel from her amount of spiritual energy that she certainly was not someone a Hollow would want to mess with. Heck, she would even be at the same level he was before losing his powers.

They didn't wait much until the Subordinate showed himself and went straight for the kill. In a blink of eyes, Alyssa summoned an energy arrow in her hand and pulled the string. The moment he got close enough, she shot it, hitting him directly. At first, he seemed unharmed by the arrow, until the moment he got pulled back by something, not being able to advance. Uryuu noticed the evil spirit was attached to a golden chain, which, despite its other end disappearing in the thin air, kept him from moving around, like a dog on a leash. The young Quincy immediately recognized it as some variation of the Chain of Fate, the chain that bound Plus-type (normal-type) souls to the Living World and kept them from becoming Hollows. Meanwhile, the girl prepared another arrow and shot it, binding another chain to Sledgehammer.

The young man's keen intelligence soon formulated a theory on that: Hollows and other evil spirits were once souls whose Chain of Fate had totally corroded before a Shinigami could send them to Soul Society. By restoring their chains (or even adding more chains), Rooders could make evil spirits regress a little to the Plus-type stage, substantially weakening them. There was even the extra advantage of restraining their movements in order to prepare a more efficient attack. 'Indeed a brilliant strategy.' He admitted.

Alyssa smirked as she hit her second arrow. 'Now that he's restrained, things will get much easier. Just a few more arrows and I can finish this battle.' She assumed. The result seemed already set.

"CRUSH,** ALMÁDENA **(_Spanish: Sledgehammer_)!" the assassin screamed, raising his sword high.

Instantly, an enormous spiritual pressure spread all around, followed by a violent wind and a blinding light surrounding his body. The trio had to shield their eyes and, when the brightness faded, their jaws dropped: their opponent's look had completely changed. His frame was even bigger than before and instead of the dirty clothes, an all-white armor covered his torso, shoulders, elbows, legs and knees. His leather mask had hardened into a helmet (*A/N: similar to Juggernaut, in X-Men*), also entirely white. But the most significant change were the two giant spiked balls directly fused to his arms, replacing his hands.

The trio stayed silent, their eyes widened at the creature before them. They were paralyzed just by sensing the monster's power. Such hesitation proved to be a mistake: with a single maneuver, he shattered the chains binding him and dashed to Alyssa. Before she could make any reaction, Sledgehammer slammed her with one of the spiked balls, tossing her to the ground. Uryuu and Dennis ran to check on her, gasping when they saw two deep cuts in her left arm. Blood stained all her left sleeve and she winced in pain, but still could fight. They all glared at the monster.

"What are you?" Alyssa asked, standing up with the guys' support. "How did you manage to break the chains of judgement?"

The monster chuckled, which soon turned into a maniacal cackle. The trio frowned at him and his taunt. As he stopped, he finally answered. "Stupid little girl. Did you think I would come here unprepared?" mocked him. "Very well, before you meet your demise, I shall give you the name of your executioner: in the past, I was known as the serial killer 'Sledgehammer'...

"But now I'm Robert Morris, an **Arrancar** (_Spanish: Tear Off_), an hybrid of Shinigami and Hollow made possible by the blessings of Lord Aizen," he explained. "Therefore, our powers have reached much higher limits than Rooders and Quincies could imagine."

Uryuu's mouth went dry at the explanation, although the girl seemed confused. She never heard of Shinigami and Hollows before, yet it was the second time he mentioned this 'Aizen' guy, so she could presume he was someone very powerful. One thing however she could understand: the Subordinate was indeed stronger than before, so the battle wouldn't go as smooth as she thought.

'Aizen managed to create hybrids of Shinigami and Hollows? How could this be possible?' the young Quincy mentally questioned. That's when the memory of Urahara Kisuke's words came to his mind. 'So that's the power of Hougyoku? No wonder Urahara-san hid it and Aizen wanted it so badly.' He concluded.

"Alyssa! We'll have to work together if we want to take him down" Uryuu said to the girl. She looked at him, as he leaned over. "Do you have anything stronger than those chains? Something strong enough to cause him real damage?" he whispered, just for her ears.

"I do, but he needs to stay still in order to work." She whispered back. That's when an idea sparkled in his head.

"How much time do you need?" he murmured.

"Just a few seconds." She murmured back. A smirk appeared in Uryuu's face: it was risky, but the plan could work.

"Let's do it! Wait for my signal and use it on him." He said, fetching his last Gintou tubes out of his pocket. So both went into their fighting stances. Dennis didn't wait for a warning and hid behind a tree.

"Enough talk! Time for you to die!" the Arrancar shouted, charging at them to kill.

Uryuu and Alyssa dodged the spiked ball slam, jumping in opposite directions. Still in air, he threw all the Gintou, except one, on the monster.

"Feel the wrath of battle and accept this sacred chalice – Sacred Bite!" he uttered, casting the **Heizen** (_German: Heating_) spell. Two cube-shaped energy fields emerged from the tubes, cutting the spiked balls off his arms. The Arrancar clenched his teeth, but knew it was no big deal.

"Worthless move! I can quickly regenerate them." The monster snorted, as his severed arms were starting to heal. Before it could finish however, Uryuu threw the remaining Gintou on him.

"A silver rod strikes the five-fingered stone bed – Quintuple Restraining Frames!" the young man uttered again, this time summoning the same coffin-like silver case from the last time. But given the Arrancar current size, the case was much more cramped inside than previously. So cramped he couldn't complete his regeneration, as it would expand even more his size, or even move, resulting in no momentum to break the case. The monster grew in wrath as he realized he was trapped by his own bulkiness.

Uryuu didn't waste any time. "Alyssa, NOW!" he shouted.

She got the signal. As the Arrancar struggled to release himself, the girl aimed an energy arrow to the sky and shot it. The arrow vanished into the clouds and they immediately started converging to the spot, forming a whirling magic rune. The rune glowed and finally cast a powerful beam of light onto the restrained monster, shattering the restraining case, but also hitting him.

The young Quincy watched everything, astonished. In his entire life, never had he heard of such a powerful Quincy/Rooder release. Perhaps his 'Letzt Stil', except that he could do it only once and at the cost of his own powers. It sounded almost impossible for a young girl like Alyssa to cast a release of that level.

Robert Morris screamed in pain as the light beam slowly consumed his body. He knew he was defeated, but couldn't avoid cursing one last time.

"DAMN KIDS! You might have defeated me, but don't think you've seen the last of us!" he yelled, giving them a murderous glare. "I'm not the only one who have returned! The others will get their revenge!"

The girl gasped at hearing that. She knew way too well what he was talking about. Indeed he wasn't the only Subordinate she had dispatched that time. So that meant...

While he still could move, the Arrancar raised his arms (or what was left of them) in the air. "LONG LIVE... LORD AIZEN!" he saluted, just before his body got completely disintegrated. When the brightness faded, he was gone, only a slightly charred ground remaining.

The two spiritual warriors just stared at the spot, battle-weary, thinking about Robert had said. Dennis had also left his hiding place and joined them. The stinging pain in Alyssa's arm returned relentlessly now the heating of fight subdued.

"Alyssa, are you OK?" her worried boyfriend asked, running to her side. She gripped her wounded arm, trying to sooth the pain, tears forming in her eyes.

"I'm fine, Dennis," she lied, faking a smile. "Just a bit shocked with this whole ordeal." Uryuu heard that and walked up to her.

"Alyssa, do you know those guys?" the young Quincy asked, kneeling beside her. She frowned at the question, yet he had to know.

"They were Subordinates, evil spirits I once fought against," she answered. "Somehow they managed to return from Hell and are seeking revenge."

Now Uryuu understood: that enemy had a grudge against her. He could understand Aizen trying to eliminate him as a mean to prevent future nuisances, but why would he be after Alyssa too? Probably he wasn't, but those 'Arrancar' were, so Aizen was just using their thirst for revenge to get rid of the young Quincy as well. Typical of him...

"If they are seeking revenge on you, you'll need my help. If Aizen is sponsoring them, the other ones will surely be stronger." He advised.

"Uryuu, do you know this 'Aizen' they mentioned?" the girl asked, a bit surprised. "Does it have anything to do to the loss of your powers?"

The young Quincy sighed. That was a long, long story.

"We should go back. We have much to talk."

* * *

><p><strong>Wow, the longest chapter yet! So many explanations to do.<strong>

**Sledgehammer's Arrancar weapon was inspired in the spiked ball he carried in the game's Hard Mode. Robert Morris is his real name.**

**Please review and tell me what you thought of the chapter.**


	4. Training

**I do not own Bleach nor Clock Tower. They belong to Tite Kubo and Capcom, respectively.**

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 04 – TRAINING<strong>

**Hamilton House**

It was noon already when Uryuu finished explaining everything to Alyssa and Dennis. About Shinigami, Hollows, Soul Society, the rescue of Kuchiki Rukia, and most important, about Aizen and the Hougyoku. The other two listened attentively and by the time the explanation was done, shock and awe were displayed in their faces.

About a minute of silence has passed before Alyssa decided to break it. "So, you're saying those Shinigami also protect humans and good souls from evil spirits?" she asked.

"Yes." Uryuu replied.

"And those Shinigami are spirits themselves too?" she asked again. He nodded.

The girl lowered her eyes a little, staring at the desk in Uryuu's room, where they were sat at. She gripped her now bandaged arm, as she processed everything that was said. It wasn't like concepts as good and evil spirits, alternative realms and powerful artifacts were alien to her. Even so, all that talk of Shinigami, Hollows, Arrancar... it was simply too much for her to handle. Her mind hadn't been so hectic since her 15th birthday.

Then Dennis decided to speak too. "Man, all these things are insane! If I haven't known about the Rooder stuff beforehand, I wouldn't believe it." He commented.

"I understand it's hard to believe it, but I assure you: everything I said is nothing but the truth." The young Quincy reinforced.

"So, Uryuu, those Entities I fought some time ago were..." Alyssa started, but the young man cut in, already knowing what she would ask. "They were probably some sort of Hollows, a sort that could merge themselves with humans, as to form a symbiotic relationship: the human provided the victims to nourish the Entity, which in turn enhanced the human's powers, to such an extend they could achieve immortality." He explained.

Alyssa lowered her eyes again: never could she have guessed there would be so many kinds of Entities, some even more powerful than the ones she had fought, as Uryuu had explained. In the end, those Subordinates were just the tip of the iceberg. The thought of having an even worse nightmare than that fateful day scared her to no end.

"Now you're saying some traitor Shinigami found a way to create hybrids of Shinigami and Hollows, stronger than both types, and now they're sending them after _you_?" Dennis asked, his tone of voice indicating a bit of accusation to the young Quincy.

"Most likely, those traitor Shinigami want me out of the way. But that Arrancar seemed to have a grudge against Alyssa, so it's presumed the next ones will try to kill her as well." Uryuu answered, ignoring the other young man's accusation.

It didn't change much in the brown-haired man's mind: he still blamed the Quincy for bringing his own problems to this house. If he hadn't showed up, Alyssa would still be living her calm life with her boyfriend, far from the Rooder's mission and the Subordinates. Nonetheless whoever's fault was it, he knew they were now stuck together... and only together they would get out of that mess.

"Alyssa, sorry to insist... but if it's Aizen we are up against, it would be better if I had my powers back," Uryuu seriously said. "So, would you reconsider your decision to help in my training?"

The girl clenched her fists: she was still not fond of trailing back the Rooder's path. What choice she had though? That 'Aizen' guy seemed really powerful and was probably preparing another strike as they talked. Out of two evils, choose the lesser, said the proverb. If she wanted to survive, she would have to fight, and it would indeed be easier if the young Quincy could help her. And, anyway, she had already used her powers once again. The trouble was already made, so there was no turning back.

"All right, Uryuu. If retrieving your powers would mean a higher chance of defeating those guys, then I'll help you." She said, now with burning determination in her eyes. The Quincy had never seen her like that before, so he was rather surprised by the sight.

Nevertheless he couldn't help but smirk too. Despite her fragile frame, that girl had quite the spirit, something expected from a Quincy warrior, regardless of the branch they belonged to. He recalled his father telling that Nancy Hamilton was a great Rooder. Seeing how her daughter inherited her blood just confirmed it.

"But before that, we should rest a little, since we've stayed up the whole night. We can start tomorrow morning," she yawned, turning to her boyfriend. "Dennis, you too should sleep here for now. I think we should stay close to each other as long as the enemies are still out there."

Visibly they were all weary, both physically and psychologically, so a nap would certainly come in handy . After all, once the training started and the real fight commenced, they would need all the energy they had. Hence Alyssa and Dennis headed to their own rooms. Uryuu was about to lie on his bed, when the girl made one last remark.

"I just don't get why you were so reckless to the point of wasting all your powers for no good reason." She said, as she left the room.

The young Quincy sat down on his bed, staring at the floor, his face frowned. She was right: it was reckless of him and he paid dearly for that. However it wasn't for no good reason: his honor was at stake, he had to avenge his grandfather.

That was the only part he had omitted during his explanation.

* * *

><p><strong>Soul Society, 12th Squad's Research and Development Institute<strong>

In a dark room, dimly lit only by a giant computer screen inside it, a few figures tirelessly worked on the vast clutter of equipments surrounding the display. Some figures resembled humans, while others were closer to an alien form than anything else. Yet all of them were clad in the standard Shinigami kimono, covered by a lab coat: they were the scientists of Soul Society's R&D Institute, a facility inside Seireitei, whose mission was to design new technologies to aid the Shinigami and to monitor Hollows appearances in the Living World.

That was exactly what one of the scientists was doing, when a warning signal was displayed on the screen.

"What the heck is that?" the scientist mumbled. He was a bulbous-headed man, with no nose, huge eyes and a rather large mouth.

"What is what, Hiyosu?" demanded a bossy man behind him, wearing skeletal visage make-up and a captain haori. This man was Kurotsuchi Mayuri, the 12th Squad captain and head of the institute. He looked exactly as at the time he fought Uryuu, only instead of a hat, his blue hair was done in an Egyptian Sphinx style, giving him an even odder look.

"Oh, captain Kurotsuchi. A few hours ago, the Hollow-monitoring system detected five unknown presences in the Living World. It doesn't look like anything we've seen before." Hiyosu reported.

The captain glanced at the screen, curious about the aforementioned presences. After staring for a few moments, he turned to ask to his underling. "How much are their spiritual wave measures?"

"Four out of them have spiritual measures of about a seated officer's. But the last one readings are almost at the level of a captain." The big-headed man said, while examining a console panel.

A maniacal grin appeared in Kurotsuchi's face. 'So powerful, huh? Interesting... looks like I found some worthy material to study.' The captain thought, while rubbing his chin. Then he proceeded. "Where's their location? Is it in Karakura Town?" he asked.

"No, sir. It's quite far from there. They appeared in the outskirts of London, a city in Europe." The scientist answered.

Kurotsuchi pondered for some minutes. He was really interested in those new presences, however with Aizen's threat currently going on, he couldn't afford to send an entire Shinigami team to investigate so far from Karakura Town, which was the most likely target of the traitor captain. At least, not until he had enough proofs of their dangerousness. General Commander Yamamoto would certainly deny his request if the did so. In addition, despite the city's size, London didn't have any currently stationed Shinigami. Till now, things there were tranquil enough to dismiss Seireitei's presence. So, he decided to send a single Shinigami, someone specialized in collecting samples for his researches.

"Hiyosu, prepare a Senkaimon Gate. I'm sending someone to take a look at that." Kurotsuchi ordered.

"Yes, sir." The underling complied.

* * *

><p><strong>Woods near the Hamilton House, three days later...<strong>

Deep in the same woods Robert Morris had chased them, a female Rooder and her boyfriend were sitting next to each other on a small river's shore, observing a male Quincy standing inside the river, only in his pants, water at his waist level. The forest was the best training area around, since a few days ago, despite Uryuu's assumption the neighbors hadn't heard anything, many people came to ask or complain about yells and noises in the Hamilton House that night. The young warriors managed to get away by lying that a burglar had broken into the house, threatened the lodgers, but got chased away in the end. However they weren't willing to risk being exposed again, so they chose to train far from commoners' view.

Ishida Uryuu was in deep concentration: not only he was submerged from the waist below, but his arms were stretched, keeping his hands underwater too. They were clenched in fists, each holding a Gintou tube, previously replenished with spiritual energy by Alyssa. The objective of this exercise was simple: to absorb spiritual particles from the water, using the spiritual energy in the Gintou. That was the very basic a Quincy warrior should be able to do.

The idea for that exercise actually came from Uryuu's mind, after observing Alyssa's last fight. He knew that, in contrast to Shinigami, who relied solely on their inner spiritual source, both Quincies and Rooders could use their surrounding environment as a spiritual source, absorbing spiritual particles as fuel to their releases. Once again, his keen intelligence could extract conclusions just by analyzing the facts: the Rooders had specialized in using water as their main source of spiritual particles.

It sounded strange, but after all he had seen, now it seemed very likely. For starters, the way Alyssa's splash had hurt the Arrancar: that water in the jar was probably charged with her own spiritual power, resulting in a highly-concentrated spiritual particles solution. Consequently something like that would have the same effect in an evil spirit as sulfuric acid in a human. That also proved the Rooders' affinity with water was two-ways: not only they could absorb particles from it, but pump them into water too.

For second, that stunning power release of Alyssa's: it could only be possible because she used the atmosphere's humidity as its source. The arrow she had shot in the sky was probably embedded in her spiritual energy, acting as a magnet to gather more spiritual particles and as a catalyst to cast that beam of light onto the enemy. That's exactly what Uryuu was trying to replicate now in the river, except for using a Gintou instead of an arrow.

Those theories made sense after all: whenever and wherever it was, water has always been the primary source of life. Nothing could live without it. Heck, life itself was born from it. So, it was no wonder it had become the universal solvent, the richest known source of spiritual particles. Even the Shinigami, who didn't need food to stay alive, still couldn't dismiss water. So, what better way of retrieving his lost Quincy powers than training directly inside a pool of this rich source?

Of course... that was all just in theory. Practice was proving to be much harder than he believed. After three days of non-stop training, Uryuu still wasn't even close to restore his powers. The Gintou energy kept draining, however he still couldn't gather enough spirit particles to form a release. So Alyssa would have to replenish the tubes again and the process would start all over. The young man's frustration increased each day.

'Darn it!' the Quincy mentally cursed, as the tubes ran out of energy. 'Not enough yet! And I even used two fully-charged Gintou.' He clenched his teeth and, frustrated by the constant failures, punched the water, lifting a small splash. Alyssa could only sadly observe, feeling sorry for his lack of progress, as she was doing the best she could to help him, which clearly wasn't enough.

Uryuu walked up to her, bringing the tubes to be recharged once more and giving a sigh. "It wasn't for this time yet. Could you please replenish them?" he politely asked, giving her the artifacts.

"Sure," she replied, taking the artifacts in her hand. "Uryuu, let's try something else. What if we spar a little? Maybe, in the heating of fight, your body might remember how to use your Quincy powers again. And some physical exercise will help you blow away your frustrations."

"All right. I guess it will do. Let me just get my shirt and we can start." He answered, but before he walked away, Alyssa took a small bottle from her pocket and held it to him.

"Wait! Take a deep breath on this. This is going to calm your nerves and enhance your concentration. It always helped me." Uryuu took it and thanked her. As he walked, he brought it closer to his nostrils and indeed it was soothing.

'Nice aroma. Smells like lavender water. I feel calmer and more focused just by inhaling it.' He admitted, smirking.

When he was out of hearing, Dennis started to talk. "Gee, this is taking forever. I wonder how long we'll have to be like that." He complained. The girl sighed.

"Be patient, Dennis. Those thinks take time." She said, a bit annoyed by her boyfriend's nagging.

"I know, but at this pace, we'll stay here for like... years. We can't skip school forever." He continued to complain.

"I'm sure we'll find a way to make it faster," she responded, standing up from her sitting position and glancing to her boyfriend. "And why the hurry? We managed to get on health leave and exams are done for the term. It still got time." She reminded him of how they had convinced their teacher for a few days off, alleging she was ill and Dennis had to take care of her.

The young man pouted. The fact was that he felt quite uncomfortable with his girlfriend giving out so much of her attention to another man. "You're surely saving no efforts just to help him. If I didn't know you any better, I'd say you're actually enjoying spending time with the Quincy." He sarcastically spat.

Alyssa placed her hands on her hips, rather dismayed at that comment. "You know I had no choice: with the Subordinates running wild, it's better to have as much help as possible." Then she leaned over to him. "And sincerely... I never thought you to be the jealous type." She mocked, grinning. That struck a nerve.

"I'm not jealous!" growled the now irritated young man, standing up too. "I'm just worried about you getting dragged in this mess and having to risk yourself as a Rooder again." Alyssa's taunting face switched to a scowl.

"Dennis Owen," she shouted this time. "In case you haven't perceived yet, I _am_ a Rooder, for God's sake! I can take care of myself! I don't need you patronizing me around as though I were a kid!" That remark angered him even more.

"Fine! If you don't need me, then there's no reason for me to stay anymore." He shouted back. He turned around and started stomping away in direction of the woods.

The girl sighed again at the sight of her leaving boyfriend. 'He's so immature. It looks like he still didn't get a grasp of the situation.' She mentally commented. That's when a voice behind her startled her a little. Thankfully it was Uryuu, now fully dressed.

"Did something happen? Why is Dennis leaving?" he asked.

"Oh, he's only bothered by all that's happening. So he went for a walk." She lied, faking a smile.

"Shouldn't we go after him? It's not safe to walk around alone." He reminded.

"He's going to be fine. Shall we begin the spar?" Of course, she knew it wasn't safe, but wasn't in the mood to talk to Dennis after their argue. And considering it's been calm for the last three days, she thought the Subordinates wouldn't come by so soon.

Uryuu nodded and the session began. Alyssa prepared her bow and started shooting energy arrows at him. Obviously with a reduced amount of power to not actually hurt him. On his side, the Quincy had to run and dodge the projectiles, while attempting to get closer enough to the Rooder in order to use one of his Gintou techniques. That was easier said than done, as the girl, despite not being an experienced warrior, shot with great speed and accuracy. So, not only he had to run, but also hide behind obstacles for protection and cast spells quickly.

A few hours later, after many bruises, sweat and failed attempts, Uryuu finally managed to trap her inside his silver case technique, using his "Wolke" as a distraction. The session was challenging, nevertheless the main issue remained: no signal of his Quincy powers back.

"Nice strategy, Uryuu," Alyssa complimented, as her sparring partner dispelled the case to free her. "Who could have guessed those blue lightnings were just a diversion as you cast a delayed spell to summon this case. Congratulations!"

"Thanks, but I still can't feel my powers returning." He smirked, despite a bit frustrated.

"We'll think of something else then," she cheered, trying to maintain their optimism. Assuming Dennis might already be at home, given he hadn't returned, she decided to call it a day. "Shall we go home?". The sun was almost setting and a chilly breeze was blowing through the forest, so the Quincy agreed.

As they walked to the Hamilton's house, the mood remained quiet most of the time. Until, surprisingly, Uryuu started a conversation.

"Alyssa," he called, getting her attention. "I recall you'd said to have quit the Rooders' path to live a normal life. Were the Subordinates the reason for that choice?"

That question kind of caught her off guard, yet she knew it would eventually pop. Probably because he was going for the opposite choice of hers: she had powers and wasn't willing to use them, he had lost his and wanted them back so he could fight. "Part of the reason, but there were other things too..." was her answer.

The Quincy lifted an eyebrow, he was now curious. Alyssa noticed that and proceeded. "When I was little, my mom sent me to study in a boarding school. I've cried so much when I knew I'd be far from her and my friends, but she said it was for my own good. Not long before I returned, mom and grandpa were... killed by the Subordinates." She paused to wipe her eyes, which were starting to moister. Of course, her grandfather hadn't exactly been 'killed' by those monsters, however, obviously she wasn't going to mention that.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have forced you to remember such things," apologized Uryuu, feeling guilty for making her cry. "You don't have to continue if you don't want to."

"No, that's okay," she assured, recomposing herself. "As I was saying, when they died, I learned of my mission as a Rooder and decided to fight the Subordinates. Eventually I managed to defeat some of them, but my life has been pretty lonely ever since. Mom and grandpa were my only family and I didn't have any friends left, except for Dennis. And I couldn't get new ones as it would only endanger them, besides risking the Rooders' secret to be exposed. I couldn't stand living like that anymore, so I chose to stop using my powers until they vanished and become a commoner."

After listening to those words, Uryuu couldn't help but sympathize with the girl: he knew what it meant to be alone. With his grandfather gone and a distant father, he lived by himself for a really long time. Only when he met Ichigo, Inoue, Chad and Rukia, he learned the meaning of trust again, although being distrustful of them at first. He never quit his Quincy mission, still he knew he shouldn't judge Alyssa for feeling loneliness and quitting hers. It was simply human after all.

"It must have been hard," he sincerely said. "None of your old friends besides Dennis ever remembered you?"

"Well," she muttered, trying to recall. "Before I went to boarding school, I had a best female friend. You know, the kind of friend you tell things you wouldn't to the boys." They chuckled a bit on that explanation. "Her name was Fiona, a bit older than me, but she was a really good friend."

"Have you tried contacting her?" Uryuu questioned.

"Unfortunately we've lost contact after I left. By my return, I've searched, but couldn't find her. I've heard her parents moved back to Italy, not so sure. Anyway, it's been so long... she probably doesn't remember me anymore. Now, Dennis is all I have."

Uryuu has never been the comforting type, in fact, he sucked at that. And he himself admitted never putting much effort to change it. Maybe it was out of empathy, or even chivalry, yet strangely he knew exactly what to say to her, what she needed to hear to feel better. "Alyssa, you can trust me too. Despite the differences between Quincies and Rooders, our basic principles are the same. We're partners in battle, we're friends, so you can count on my help whenever you need," he said, afterwards feeling quite awkward for saying it. Maybe he had got a tad carried away. "That is, if you wish so."

The girl's eyes widened at that remark. For a moment, he thought to have frightened her, but soon relaxed as her lips curved into a smile. "Thanks, Uryuu. I will."

From that moment on, a bond was formed between them. Surely not a romantic one, rather a comradeship born from the mutual admiration they held for each other. Uryuu saw on Alyssa the born skills needed to carry out the mission bestowed on the Quincy/Rooders. A natural talent, so to speak, as the girl showed a lot of prowess for someone who had learned of their powers at the late age of fifteen. Reciprocally, Alyssa saw on Uryuu an endless determination, a fact confirmed by his unbending will to retrieve his powers and continue his life mission. No matter what, he utterly refused to run and hide whenever life threw something nasty on his way.

At last, with renewed resolve, they resumed their path.

They were about halfway to home, when they noticed an object near a tree. They approached to see it better and suddenly froze in their tracks when recognized it as one of Dennis' shoes. Alyssa ran and took it, looking for her boyfriend but he wasn't around. Uryuu had an equally worried expression in his face.

"Why is his shoe here? Didn't he go home?" she kept asking, more to herself than to her partner. All of sudden, she heard steps in her direction and saw it was Uryuu dashing to her. Confusion took over her, followed by astonishment when he jumped and grabbed her, rolling together over the ground. She was about to question what he was doing, when another sensation came to her: dread, as she saw a flying sword impaling the nearest tree, exactly where she was standing. And that sensation deepened even more by seeing who came to fetch the sword.

A bulky figure, wearing a filthy apron over a black shirt and elbow-length rubber gloves, but most noticeably, his bald head with a gas mask covering the entire face. Even behind the mask though, the Rooder girl could sense his murdering glare as he took the sword back in his hand. Facing them, stood the supposedly deceased assassin known as 'Corroder'.

* * *

><p><strong>Talk about cliffhangers. Originally I intended to put the Corroder's fight in this chapter, but I thought it would make it too long. So it's up for the next chapter.<strong>

**Have any of the readers caught the small reference to another game in this chapter?**

**Please review and comment.**


	5. Power Retrieval

**For those who didn't catch the reference in the last chapter, it was Fiona Belli, from Haunting Ground, another popular game of the Clock Tower franchise.**

**I do not own Bleach nor Clock Tower. They belong to Tite Kubo and Capcom, respectively.**

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 05 – POWER RETRIEVAL<strong>

"Hello, Alyssa. Missed me?" Corroder sarcastically spat, his voice echoing inside the mask.

The girl didn't answer, glaring at the assassin, as she got up assisted by Uryuu.

"Another of the Subordinates?" asked the young man, his eyes narrowing at the enemy too. Alyssa just nodded.

"Heh, finally we can settle our score, Rooder girl. I've waited long enough for that." Corroder then turned to Uryuu. "And Lord Aizen wants the Quincy-boy dead too. So I'm killing two birds with one stone."

Both spiritual warriors got into fighting stances, the enemy also preparing his sword. Before hell broke loose, Alyssa questioned. "Where's Dennis? What have you done to him?"

"The others are taking good care of him," he sadistically chuckled. "But you should be worrying about yourselves right now." Was his last remark, before charging at them, his blade pointed to the young Quincy.

Uryuu realized the attacker's intention to break the weakest link of the chain first and dodged the strike, then running away in order to keep distance from the assassin. Simultaneously, Alyssa ran in the opposite direction, forcing the enemy to choose one of the targets. Which ended up being Uryuu.

Taking advantage of her longer attack range, the Rooder prepared her bow while Corroder was chasing after her partner. She carefully aimed and shot an energy arrow, hitting right on the Subordinate's head side, causing him to stumble a bit. That arrow didn't summon a chain of judgement, as she now knew they wouldn't restrain him for good, preferring to cause some damage instead.

Corroder angrily turned to the girl. That hit was no big deal, yet it was enough to piss him off. The moment he dashed to the Rooder, the Quincy cast his blue lightnings spell, hitting the assassin in the back, making him grunt. That angered him even more, as he let a loud growl.

Alyssa and Uryuu however were not afraid of that. They knew they were at advantage: this enemy wasn't as fast and skilled in close-quarter as the previous one. Their numbers were favoring them as well: if he went after one, the other would take the chance to strike. So as long as they kept a safe distance from the Subordinate, they would be fine.

That's when Corroder finally had it. "No more games! Time to get serious" he threatened, holding out his sword.

"DISSOLVE, **BÃNO ÁCIDO **(_Spanish: Acid Bath_)." An immense spiritual pressure could be felt in the surroundings, as a white smoke shrouded the assassin's entire figure. That lasted for some moments, until the smoke cleared, revealing Corroder's new form. His body had dramatically changed: an all-white armor covered him completely, leaving only some space between the joints to allow movement, and a hole in the middle of his chest area. A helmet wrapped his entire head, still keeping the gas-mask shape on the face. But the most significant change was a huge container-like structure on his back and multiple hollow appendages emerging from all around his armor, resembling small volcanoes.

'Just like the other.' Uryuu recalled.

The Rooder seemed to have thought the same, as she spoke. "That change of form... was it Aizen who gave it to you?" she questioned.

The monster laughed. "Exactly. Not only he brought us back from Hell, but bestowed those amazing powers onto us too," he raised his bulky arms as showing off. "This is 'Bãno Ácido', the **Resurrección** (_Spanish: Resurrection_) of John Haigh, a proud member of Lord Aizen's Arrancar Army."

"'Resurrección?'" Alyssa wondered, raising an eyebrow. Uryuu knew the translation for that word, although not what the Arrancar meant with that.

"The Resurrección is the true shape of our Arrancar powers," John explained. He couldn't resist bragging about his greatly enhanced strength. "Just like the Shinigami can materialize their powers into their zanpakutou, we Arrancars can summon ours as well, using our own bodies as medium. With that, we retrieve the skills we once had as Hollows, becoming far stronger than anyone could imagine."

'So that's how Aizen managed to use the Hougyoku's powers to create such fearsome creatures.' The Quincy mentally concluded.

"But enough talk! PREPARE TO DIE, BRATS!" he shouted, holding his right arm forward. A concentration of spiritual energy started to form at the tip of one of the appendages in his arm. Uryuu tensed as he knew what was coming, Alyssa doing the same as she guessed it was probably nothing good.

"**CERO** (_Spanish: Zero_)!" John screamed. The concentration turned into a dark sphere and launched itself at the Rooder girl. She barely managed to dodge it, as the Cero exploded on a nearby large rock. Both hers and her partner's eyes widened in dread as they saw the rock melting like butter on a hotplate soon after the explosion.

"It melted..." commented a horrified Alyssa, staring at the black puddle which used to be the rock. She turned to the enemy when he started cackling.

"Lovely, isn't it?" the Arrancar sarcastically remarked. "My Cero not only can damage by blasting, but also melts anything it touches. It's practically an one-hit-kill attack."

The two spiritual warriors' faces frowned as they realized their longer-range advantage had vanished. However they still were in superior number and had to use it. So they started running in opposite directions, circling the monster, trying to make him focus in only one of them. When he lifted his arm to aim at Uryuu, Alyssa prepared her bow. But the moment she shot, John lifted his other arm and two Ceros launched from two different appendages, towards the girl. The first arm shot another Cero at Uryuu.

The Quincy dodged it, since he was already expecting it. The Rooder however wasn't so lucky: after the first projectile collided with the arrow, obliterating both, the second one went straight to her surprised person at full speed. By pure reflex, she jerked her body out of the way, avoiding a full hit. But the Cero got to slightly touch her right arm, leaving a dark stain on it. The girl fell to the ground, wincing in pain as the stain started to burn terribly. Tears slowly wet her face, clutching her wounded arm to sooth the scourching sensation. She lay there, unable to get up, her bow dispelling back into jar form.

"Alyssa!" Uryuu yelled, as he sprinted in her aid from the other side of the battlefield. The assassin grinned, already expecting it. So when the Quincy was close enough, he accelerated in his direction and violently punched him in the face, tossing him close to the girl.

The young man stood up, a bit dizzy by the blow, a thin thread of blood oozing from his nose and mouth, while placing his hand over his bruised cheek. He staggered to Alyssa and gently brought her to sitting position. "Are you hurt?" he checked.

"My arm... it burns... it's almost like... it's being severed." She muttered, clenching her teeth in pain. Uryuu gasped at seeing the now blackened stain in her arm, the smell of burning flesh almost making him gag. But he didn't have enough time to ponder about it: the Arrancar was already beside him and kicked him in the gut, tossing the Quincy warrior far from the Rooder. Behind the mask, the monster's eyes glimmered with satisfaction.

"Now you're are aware of you own helplessness, brats." He laughed at the two wounded figures. Uryuu struggled to get back in his feet, but the pain subdued his senses, added to his previous wear from the training.

'Darn it! This guy can fire multiple Ceros at once. Why didn't I notice it before?' he mentally cursed for not correlating the many appendages on the assassin's body to the capability of multiple shooting. John was amused by his scowled expression.

"Just wait, Quincy-boy. First I'll take care of this little girl, then it'll be your turn." He mocked, as he pointed his arm to Alyssa, charging another Cero. Uryuu's eyes widened at the sight.

"Don't!" he shouted, still not managing to stand up. "Leave her alone! It's me you want". But the plea was ignored by John, who had just finished charging the energy sphere and was about to pull the trigger.

Before he did though, the monster was met by a foot on his face. The blow had been so strong that sent him flying about 10 feet away, and made him fall soundly on the ground, lifting a huge cloud of dust.

Both Alyssa and Uryuu glanced surprisingly at the person who had just saved their lives, Uryuu especially. The person was a female, wearing a short black kimono which ended on her thighs, an armband around her left and a red choker. She had raven-black straight hair, tied in a long braid and a melancholic look in her face.

"Lieutenant... Kurotsuchi!" he muttered.

* * *

><p><strong>Unknown place<strong>

Dennis slowly opened his eyes, as his mind began to awake. His vision still a bit blurred, he glanced around to find out where he was, but it was hopeless: the entire place was a pitch dark, the only source of light being the one right above him. He tried to move, but strangely his arms and legs didn't comply. When he turned his head sidewards, he figured out why: his limbs were restrained by iron cuffs attached to the wall he was leaning on. He was being held prisoner somewhere.

"What the..." he mumbled to himself, a shocked expression over his face. What was he doing there? How did he end up there? He made an effort to remember what had happened.

'Let's see,' the young man pondered. 'The last thing I remember was walking through the woods after I had an argue with Alyssa. And the reason was, if I'm not mistaken, because she was spending more time with that Quincy-guy than with me,' he frowned a little by recalling that, but continued anyway. 'Then I was returning home and about halfway I heard a noise near some trees. I went to check it on, when...' his eyes then widened in dread. 'When a masked guy with a sword jumped in front of me and knocked me out!'

"That man was a Subordinate!" he loudly concluded, finally understanding he was now a hostage for the Subordinates. At the same moment, he heard approaching steps.

"Oh, so you finally got it? Pity it's a bit too late now." Said a mocking voice in the darkness. Even not seeing the owner, that voice seemed strangely familiar to Dennis. As the steps halted, he could only discern the figure due to the darkness.

"Who are you? Why did you bring me here?" he demanded, anger and fear alternating in his tone.

The figure unsheathed something resembling a sword and launched itself towards him. He instinctively shut his eyes, expecting to be killed right away. However the pain never came, so he gradually opened them again, only to see the tip of the blade standing a few inches from his face. Nevertheless what almost made his eyeballs jump was the person carrying the sword, now fully distinguishable under the light.

Wearing a purple sleeveless vest and a red skirt, silver arm and shin guards, her black hair done in an odd ponytail bound twice over her head, and her pale skin, that sight immediately refreshed Dennis' memory about that voice. The only difference from before was a strange mask-like feature, resembling a skull, which covered the right half of her face, and a hole going straight through her head, right where the eye orbit should have been.

"It's been long, Dennis. How have you been?" she sarcastically laughed, keeping the sword pointed to the young man's face.

"You!" he shouted. "You're the freakish woman of those scissor-siblings!"

"The name's Jemima," she scolded, placing the blade edge at the prisoner's neck. "You should at least remember the name of your once captor." Dennis flinched at the cold touch of the weapon. Jemima noticed it and taunted. "_Tsk_, _Tsk_. Still the same coward... I wonder why Alyssa picked someone like you as her boyfriend."

That hit a sensitive spot. "That's none of your damn business!" he yelled. "And what do you want with Alyssa? Is it revenge? Don't you dare touch her, got that? She just wants to live in peace. It's Uryuu your boss wants, isn't it?"

Jemima stared at him for a few seconds and then started cackling. "Ha ha, you're a fool! It's true that Lord Aizen wants the Quincy-boy dead and we lust for revenge on the Rooder," she paused, sadistically smirking next. "But that's not the whole reason."

Dennis froze at that remark. There was more than simply revenge? What would they want then? That's when a terrifying thought came to him. "You're not talking about...?" he anxiously asked. Jemima's sinister grin confirmed what he was thinking.

"Oh, looks like even fools can think smartly once in a while," she spat, leaning over to scare him even more with her perforated half-mask. "That's right. And when your little girlfriend come to rescue you, we'll be waiting for her." After that, she pulled back her sword and left, maniacally laughing.

A deep expression of dread was pasted in the young man's face. As despair took over, he tried pulling himself out of the cuffs, but in vain. Finally giving up, he sighed. Many thoughts ran through his mind: how foolish of him was to burst out of jealousy for Alyssa, to walk alone in the woods and to allow himself to get captured like that, just to become a bait for her. His head lowered as one last thought passed. 'I need to warn Alyssa!'

* * *

><p><strong>Woods near the Hamilton House, inside a cave<strong>

"Is it better now?" Nemu politely asked, as she finished bandaging Alyssa's injury. The three were now in a cave, deeper in the woods, hiding from the Arrancar.

"Yes, thanks." The Rooder said, more relieved from the pain. It was not comforting to think that she had both arms healing from some sort of wound. It could affect her archery skills, although the cuts in her left arm almost didn't hurt anymore.

"And you, Quincy-san? Are you OK just with that?" the female Shinigami asked Uryuu, who was holding only an ice bag over his bruised cheek.

"I am. Thanks." Was his reply. Nemu just bowed and started packing her medical equipment. As she did it, both Alyssa and Uryuu gazed at her. The girl was surprised to actually see a Shinigami in person.

"Uh Nemu-san," she called, getting the lieutenant's attention. "Thanks for your help back there. You've really saved our lives." She said, regarding the way the Shinigami woman landed a kick in John Haigh's head, then carried both young warriors in her shoulders and fled from the battlefield before the assassin could regain himself. "You're really strong, Nemu-san. You could have defeated that monster in no time." The Rooder complimented.

"No, I could only stun him long enough to help you escape." Nemu knew it was actually a lie. Despite the Arrancar's power, a lieutenant-level Shinigami like her surely would have been more than enough to handle him. However, the moment she saw a beaten Uryuu on the battleground, strangely her priorities inverted: instead of defeating and capturing the Arrancar for sampling, she opted for saving the youngsters first. Why would she be disobeying her captain's orders? That was something she couldn't explain. She only knew it had something to do with the young Quincy. Finished the packing, she turned to the young man.

"Quincy-san, may I ask why you are here in London, so far from Karakura Town?" Nemu asked, always keeping the same blank face.

Uryuu, on the other hand, wasn't so happy to see her. She did help him now and then, during his fight in Soul Society, and he was grateful for that. However, he was aware of her loyalty to her captain and if she was here, that meant Mayuri had something fishy planned. Anyway, the best way of finding it out would be talking to her.

"To search a way of retrieving my powers back. The ones I've lost at the battle against your captain." He simply confessed, seeing no point in hiding the fact, since the Shinigami could sense spiritual power. Which he currently had none.

Nemu had never been the type to sympathize with anyone, but by hearing that, a tiny hint of feeling came to her. A really, really tiny one. A feeling some would describe as guilt. "I see." She commented, imperceptibly lowering his eyes. That was something strange for her. Why was the young Quincy making her feel sensations she had never felt before? Was it any sort of bug in her programming? She would have to make a full scan later.

The lieutenant turned to the other girl. "You're the one helping him in his retrieval? Are you also a Quincy?" she asked. The Rooder was about to answer when Uryuu cut in.

"She is. Just like me, she's a Quincy!" he said, giving Alyssa a glance of 'play along', to which she complied, although confused.

"That's right. I'm a Quincy too."

Nemu stayed silent for a few moments, until she spoke to Uryuu again. "Quincy-san, may I ask you to leave the cave while I take a better look at Alyssa's injuries? She will need privacy. Just be careful not to be spotted by the enemy."

The young man hesitated a little: the idea of leaving his partner alone with a Shinigami didn't sit right with him. He did anyway, out of concern for her health, but not before giving her the same 'continue to play along' glance. As he stepped outside, he could only hope Soul Society didn't find out Alyssa was a Rooder. Who knew what that mad-scientist captain would do if he took an interest in her powers.

About ten minutes passed, and fortunately no signs of the monster so far. That's when he heard the girls calling him from inside the cave, so he proceeded to enter it. But the moment he arrived at the previous spot, only Alyssa was waiting there. "Where's the lieutenant?" he asked her.

Suddenly, he felt someone grabbing him from behind, restraining his arms from under the armpits. He struggled to get out of the hold, but the restrainer was simply too strong. For a moment, he thought it was the Arrancar, except that it was Nemu.

"Lieutenant, what are you doing? Let me go!" he shouted, struggling even more, not making her budge an inch. A gleam of light in front of him made him gaze forward. Alyssa was pulling her bow string, with an energy arrow aimed at the young Quincy. His body froze in confusion and dread.

"Alyssa, what's this all about? Why are you both...?" he muttered, his voice a bit shaken.

The Rooder just stood there, a serious look in her face. "Sorry for that, Uryuu." Was her last statement, before loosing the string and shooting the arrow. Uryuu's eyes pupils contracted involuntarily as the projectile pierced right through his chest. Immediately his entire world turned black...

The Rooder lowered his bow after that, worried by the sight of her partner's body lying on the ground. She turned to the Shinigami woman. "Are you sure it was the only way? What if I killed him?"

Nemu just shook her head. "That was indeed the only way. According to Mayuri-sama's long-term researches on the Quincies, the core of their skills is exactly 19mm to the right of the heart. In order to Quincies restore their powers, they must be previously exhausted physically and mentally, which the training and the fight already did, and then shot accurately on that spot by a spiritual arrow. That will reactivate their hibernating powers."

But the other girl still felt bad for shooting Uryuu. "Why didn't you just tell him from the beginning? We wouldn't have had to do it against his will." Alyssa argued. Again Nemu just shook her head.

"He wouldn't have believed me. I know you Quincies don't trust the Shinigami, so he would have probably assumed I was trying to kill him." She explained.

"Well, at first I thought that too. Maybe if you hadn't saved us earlier, I probably wouldn't have been convinced of that." The Rooder admitted, but smiling nonetheless. Abruptly, they turned to the cave's entrance: a huge spiritual power could be felt nearby.

'Looks like the monster finally found us.' Alyssa thought. She and Nemu sprinted to the outside. They would have to hold the assassin until Uryuu awakened. It didn't take long to meet John face to face. Killing intent was almost dripping out of his body.

"You Shinigami bitch!" he yelled, pointing to Nemu. "I don't know who you are, but you'll regret prying into my fight!" he threatened, pushing his arms forwards and firing two Ceros. The female duo dodged the projectiles by jumping in opposite directions. Before landing, the Rooder shot an arrow at the Arrancar, who blocked it with his forearm. He soon noticed the lieutenant quickly approaching him from the side. Nemu attempted a high kick in his face, yet he blocked it with his other forearm. John then tried to smash the female Shinigami with his fist, but she readily jumped backwards to avoid it.

So the enemy decided to change his strategy: his chances would be better by attacking from long range. He jumped on a large rock and stretched his arms forward. Immediately all the appendages over his armor began to gather dark energy, forming at least twenty Ceros over his entire body. Alyssa gasped at that, while Nemu just stared nonchalantly.

"CERO!" he screamed, launching all the blasts at the same time. The two girls had to take shelter to not be hit by any of the corrosive projectiles. They hardly had time to breath, when a second wave of Ceros advanced, forcing them to take new shelters, as the previous ones got melted.

"HA HA HA! You can run all you want! With those many Ceros, there's no way you can counter-attack me! Eventually, you'll all die!" he taunted, while continuously firing more blasts. The girls could only keep running and wait for a gap in his barrage.

'It seems I have underestimated the enemy skills,' Nemu analyzed, as she hid behind a tree. Without her zanpakutou, she could only attack at close range. Her hand reluctantly got closer to a thistle-flower symbol tattooed on her chest, similar to the one on her armband. 'Will I have to do it?'

Being out of actual combat for a while, Alyssa was starting to pant due to the effort. When sweat moistened the bandage on her arm, the stinging sensation immediately returned. The flinch made her stop in the tracks, kneeling over in pain. The assassin noticed it and aimed for her.

"DIE!" the Arrancar yelled, firing an energy sphere ready to put an end to the girl's life. Fear struck her body, as she realized she wouldn't be able to dodge it in time and was about to meet her demise...

If it wasn't for an energy arrow hitting and nullifying the Cero just a few inches from her.

"What?" John shouted, as he and the female duo glanced to the shooter.

It was Uryuu, standing over a ground elevation a few yards from them. He looked fine and ready for battle, despite being shot in the chest just a few minutes earlier. But what really caught their eyes was a blue-glittering Quincy bow in his hands. This bow however was different from his previous one: it was cross-shaped with many circles around the center, resembling a spiderweb.

The Rooder's eyes gleamed at the sight, while the enemy had a dismayed face. "Uryuu, your powers have returned!" she joyfully exclaimed. The Quincy just smirked there.

"I don't know what you've done, Alyssa. But whatever it's been, the moment I awoke, I could feel the spiritual particles literally invading my body. Almost like rebirthing from the dead. That's when I immediately realized my skills were back for good," he explained. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me, partner. It's all thanks to Nemu-san. She told me what to do." She said. Uryuu looked at Nemu, who just nodded in agreement. Her face still had the same blank expression, but unconsciously, inside she was happy to see the young Quincy back into the race. He smirked and nodded back to her in gratitude.

"Big deal, brat!" the Arrancar sarcastically interrupted. "It doesn't matter if you have your powers back, you'll never defeat me!" he started charging another barrage of Ceros. Uryuu just prepared his bow.

"Fool! My Resurrección can fire up to fifty Ceros at once. There's no way you can take them all!" he arrogantly mocked, sending all the blasts at the new warrior.

"Really?" the young man calmly asked, as the attack closed the distance. Then with a single movement, multiple energy arrows were simultaneously shot from the bow, obliterating all the enemy's projectiles. Both Alyssa and John's jaws dropped in astonishment.

Uryuu adjusted his glasses. "Then let me warn you that my **Ginrei Kojaku** (_Silver Peak Sparrow_) can fire up to 1200 arrows at once. I purposely restricted the number of arrows this time only to match yours." He proudly stated.

If they could have seen the Subordinate's face, they would have seen his overconfident grin switching to a shocked expression. A few minutes ago, he was so convinced of killing the youngsters, but now he was the one on the verge of being killed. Despair fell onto him as he attempted what would have been his last move.

"LOWLY HUMAN! YOU CAN'T DEFEAT ME!" the Arrancar yelled, as he fired all fifty Ceros at the same time, forming a huge mass of dark energy. Uryuu just patiently watched it come near.

"**Licht Regen** (_German: Rain of Light_)" the Quincy uttered, while gathering spiritual energy at his bow core. An even huger mass of blue spiritual arrows launched itself from the bow towards the enemy. Milliseconds passed until the space gap between the two masses vanished. The blue one nullified the entire dark one on the way, advancing practically unaltered to the Arrancar. The monster hardly had time to scream as the attack hit him like a tsunami.

'So this is the power of a Quincy? Amazing!' mused Alyssa, flabbergasted, as she could only see John Haigh being engulfed by an azure blur, followed by a large cloud of dust. When it subsided, they finally could take a glimpse of the monster. He was still standing, but completely messed up: his right arm and half of his face were missing, just like some fingers in his left hand and a good chunk on both sides of his torso. The container on his back was all cracked, although still in one piece, and the rest of his body looked like it had been chewed by a shoal of piranhas. Since he wasn't healing, it seemed he had been damaged beyond his capability of regeneration. Putting it short, he was done for.

Uryuu, Alyssa and Nemu cornered the defeated assassin, willing to give the final blow. But first they would need to interrogate him.

"Before we finish you off, there are a few things we'd like to ask," Uryuu said, keeping him at aim. "First, where did you take Dennis?"

"And what exactly are you?" Nemu asked. "Was it Aizen who sent you?"

John glared at them. Between groans and pants, he managed to speak. "If... you want to... see that... snotty friend... of yours... again... come to... the Clock Tower..."

All the present lifted an eyebrow in confusion at that revelation. Except for Alyssa, who knew what he was talking about.

The Arrancar then let an evil chuckle: he couldn't fight anymore, but it didn't mean he was harmless yet. He raised this left arm (the only one he had left) and with a quick elbow thrust, shattered the container on his back. A yellow light suddenly escaped through the cracks, making a hissing sound similar to leaking gas. The warriors immediately backed away from the monster, as he started cackling like crazy.

A powerful explosion happened next, followed by a yellow smoke spreading through a fifty feet radius. The trees, the rocks, the grass... everything inside that radius melted into nothing. And the youngsters would have too, if Uryuu hadn't used his **Hirenkyaku** (_God Step_) and Nemu, her **Shunpo** (_Flash Step_) technique, to escape the blast. Since Alyssa didn't have a similar skill, the young man had carried her.

They observed the fog until it faded, revealing the giant steaming crater formed by the corrosion. John Haighs was nowhere to be seen, having been dissolved by his suicidal blast. The Quincy and the Rooder sighed in relief, whereas the female Shinigami only stared at the explosion epicenter.

'Looks like I couldn't get any samples from that enemy," she pondered, reminding of her mission. 'But there will be other opportunities'. She turned back when Alyssa's voice was heard.

"Uryuu!" the Rooder shouted as the young man collapsed to the ground, evidently weary. Both girls ran to his side to check on him.

"Don't worry. I'm just still not used to this new power," he assured, panting. "It wore me out pretty fast". The bow on his hand dispelled, leaving only a small pentacle cross-shaped object hanging on his wrist by a string. It was his new Quincy cross, a (rare) present from his father.

Nemu helped him to stand, as she asked. "Quincy-san, would you mind giving me an update of the situation?"

The young man wasn't too fond of the idea of helping a Shinigami, especially one who was in league with Mayuri, but... she had restored his powers, for crying out loud! He owed her a big one. It was the least he could do to repay.

"All right. Let's go back to the house first. We can talk there."

* * *

><p><strong>Now Uryuu has his powers back and reinforcements have arrived. But will it be enough to take down the upgraded Subordinates? Find it on the next chapters.<strong>

**Corroder's real name is John Haigh, which was inspired on the real-life homonym killer, nicknamed "Acid Bath Murderer" (hence his Resurreccioón's name).**

**This fight may haven't been so intense as the previous because Corroder is a long-ranged striker, so he doesn't do much other shooting his Ceros. But the others will surely be.**

**Please read and review.**


	6. To the Rescue

**Sorry for the delay. I've been tremendously, tremendously busy those last weeks. But here it comes another chapter of Quincy Quest: Power Retrieval.**

**I do not own Bleach nor Clock Tower. They belong to Tite Kubo and Capcom, respectively.**

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 06 – TO THE RESCUE<strong>

**Hamilton House**

"I see," Nemu commented, just after Uryuu had briefed her on the situation. "So those creatures are hybrids of Shinigami and Hollows created by Aizen, using the Hougyoku's powers.

"And they were sent after you, because Aizen believes the Quincies to be a future threat?" she finished, to which Uryuu nodded. Obviously he had omitted the part about Alyssa being a Rooder and the Subordinates' vendetta on her. He didn't want captain Kurotsuchi trying to experiment on her in case he ever discovered it. As a matter of fact, he also wasn't exactly happy to learn his powers had returned only thanks to the wretched research made on his kin by that mad captain.

On the other hand, Alyssa just remained silent during all the explanation. She wasn't sure why, but she had the impression Uryuu didn't want her to say anything to the Shinigami woman, so she just let him do the talking. The Rooder folded her arms, touching the spots where her wounds were. Or better, used to be: now both the cuts and the acid burn were gone, thanks to a special ointment Nemu had recently applied on them. Her arms were now fully healed, the skin not even scarred.

'Those Shinigami medicines are certainly amazing.' She mentally remarked, while the others talked.

"Quincy-san, you have mentioned your friend being kidnapped by the Arrancar. Do you have any idea what he meant by 'Clock Tower'?" the raven-haired woman asked. The Quincy shook his head.

"I do," the other girl spoke for the first time, catching their attention. "It's their hideout. I've been there before."

"In that case, please take me there. I'll help you to save Dennis." Uryuu said.

The Rooder displayed a surprised face. "But, Uryuu... you've already restored your powers. There's no need for you to get involved any further."

"One more reason to stay and help you. Those enemies are strong and you'll need me if you want to rescue your boyfriend." He replied.

"But I can't have you risk yourself for me. I couldn't even help you retrieve your powers, it was all thanks to Nemu-san. You should just go back to Japan and prepare for the battle against Aizen." She argued.

"Alyssa, you've helped me more than you think. And besides, I told you could count on me, remember?" he reminded.

An awkward silence fell for a moment, but soon the Rooder's expression soothed and she curved a gentle smile. "It's true. Thanks, Uryuu."

"I'm going too," Nemu calmly said, causing the two youngsters to look at her. "If Aizen is somehow involved, then it is my duty as a vice-captain to find as much intelligence as possible." She half-lied, given she intended mainly to collect samples of those 'Arrancar' breeds. That was her mission nonetheless. Uryuu wasn't actually willing to let a Seireitei agent tag along, however he knew it was her job anyway. And, although not admitting it himself, her help would be needed against such powerful monsters. He would have to be careful to not expose Alyssa's secret though. Having no other choice, he agreed.

"It's decided then. Let me just prepare some stuff and we can go." The young man concluded.

"Understood. I will prepare my gears too. We will meet again in a few hours." Nemu confirmed, giving a bow and making her way out of Alyssa's room, where the discussion was taking place.

Once she left the room, Uryuu turned to the brunette and murmured. "Alyssa, while the lieutenant is around, don't mention anything regarding the Rooders. It would be better if Seireitei didn't know you are one."

"But why? She seems so nice." She asked.

"Trust me. Just continue pretending you are a Quincy. We don't know what would happen if 'certain people' in Gotei 13 found about a separate Quincy branch." He warned, trying not to mention his own grandfather's terrible fate.

The girl was still confused, yet decided to comply anyway. After all, he was the one who knew better the Shinigami. It wouldn't hurt to be cautious.

"All right. I'll do it." She answered.

Uryuu nodded and took his leave afterwards.

* * *

><p><strong>Unknown place<strong>

Inside a pitch dark room, three figures stood at some sort of meeting. Out of them, only Jemima's figure was recognizable. The other two remained concealed in the darkness.

"Robert's been defeated. John too." The Scissorwoman's voice echoed.

"Well, it's not like they'll be missed anyway." Another of the voices mocked.

"Those two braindeads. If they had just stuck to the plan, they wouldn't have been defeated in first place." The third figure in the room commented.

"At least we have the annoying brat as hostage now. We'll just wait for Alyssa and the Quincy-boy to come and have our fun then." Jemima remarked.

"SILENCE, YOU ALL!" a new voice boomed around the room, making the others shut. That particular voice didn't seem to have a source, sounding omnipresent. Some moments of quietness had passed before it spoke again. "It seems Soul Society had sent reinforcements. Now those kids have a Shinigami ally with them."

"It's just another tiny, little fly, sir. Squashing one insect more or less won't make much of a difference." One of the previous voices arrogantly said.

"Still," the bossy voice reminded. "This task is supposed to be a secret one. Lord Aizen wouldn't be much pleased if the Gotei 13 took any suspicions and sent more Shinigami. Therefore, those three are to be dealt swiftly as soon as they arrive."

"Let me do it, sir. I'm so eager to tear them apart." The owner of the arrogant voice requested.

"Hey, why do you have to go first?" protested the other voice.

"Yes, we all have been thirsting for a good fight." Jemima also complained.

"Because I'm the one who knows better the terrain they'll be arriving next." Was the answer. Before any reply was given, the commanding voice cut in.

"All right, you may go," it had decided, much to the other two present's dismay. "Do whatever you want to the Quincy and the Shinigami, but remember: Alyssa is to be brought alive. The ritual shall work better if the blood is still fresh." It ordered.

"Yes, sir."

* * *

><p><strong>Hamilton House<strong>

Hours later, the three spiritual warriors were ready to depart. Uryuu was the first to finish the preparations: he was clad in his all-white mantled attire, the same one from the Seireitei infiltration. The only differences were a loose belt on his waist, holding some strange silver appendages, and his new Quincy cross tied to the wrist.

Nemu was the next: she looked exactly the same, except for a small backpack tied to her waist. Uryuu had always wondered why she didn't carry a zanpakutou like the other Shinigami. Maybe she'd rather rely on her physical abilities than swordsmanship. Or maybe she had become a vice-captain just for Mayuri's personal interests. It was a nasty thought, but considering how that man usually acted...

As he pondered about that, Alyssa arrived at the main hall, both the presents turning to her. The young man had his eyes (greatly) widened at her new looks: she was wearing a white toga, leather brown sandals, a golden bracelet on her right arm and a golden necklace. From a thin belt on her waist, hung her holy water vial. However, what really caught his attention were two details: first, a small silver object hanging from her right wrist, which resembled a lot his Quincy cross, except it was shaped like a clover, with four tiny green gems, one for each leaf. The other thing was how her toga covered only her left shoulder, leaving her right shoulder and part of her chest... well, nude.

'God, what am I thinking?' Uryuu mentally scolded himself, a slight blush spreading across his face. 'This isn't time for that! She's just my partner and she has already a boyfriend, for crying out loud!'

Alyssa approached the two. "So, what do you think?" she asked, regarding her new attire.

"You look great," the Quincy responded, trying to hide his embarrassment. "Reminds me of the Ancient Roman priestesses."

"Thanks. I used to think of this as too revealing, but since it's the outfit I worn at that time, I thought I should wear it now. You know, as a lucky charm," the brunette cheerfully mentioned, looking at Uryuu. "I see you are wearing white too. It seems that color is tradition for the Quincies too."

Nemu raised an eyebrow at that last remark. That's when Alyssa recalled promising to pretend to be a Quincy. "I mean, considering how old those traditions are, I tend to forget even the clothing color." She forcefully laughed, in an attempt to correct what she had said.

"Alyssa, may I ask what's that in your wrist?" Uryuu asked, trying to draw attention from the Rooder's slip, but also out of curiosity.

"Oh, this?" she lifted her arm with the clover. "It was a present from my mom. It was supposed to be worn like a necklace, but it's more practical like that. I use it as a medium for my powers, by concentrating my spiritual energy on it," she pointed at the young man's wrist. "Like your cross."

The Quincy couldn't avoid smirking a bit at those comparisons. Despite how long the Rooders and the Quincies had been divided, their traditions and skills still remained mostly the same: the clothing, the parent-to-child legacy artifacts, their source of power... he almost regretted considering the Rooders as defectors. In the end, they were still faithful to the majority of the Quincy traditions.

"I think it's time to go." Nemu interrupted. "Alyssa-san, could you show us the way?"

"Sure. Follow me." She said, walking up the stairs to the second floor with the others in tow.

Both Uryuu and Nemu got confused (although the Shinigami kept the same blank expression) the moment the brunette entered her deceased mother's room. How could a clock tower be reached from there? Their confusion deepened as she halted before an old grandpa clock. She started turning a few keys near the clock's face, adjusting the hands. It got set to three o'clock.

Suddenly the clock started clanging and the nearby wall retracted sidewards, revealing a hidden door, much to the others' surprise. They were about to ask, so Alyssa answered ahead.

"This is a secret passageway to the Clock Tower. My grandpa had built it long ago and my mom used it during her training. This is something I came to learn just recently." She explained, as opening the door. Inside, there was a small chamber with a rune drawn on the floor. "We call it a Portal Square."

The Quincy and the Shinigami curiously stared at the rune. It consisted mainly in six small circles around a central one, with an outer ring surrounding everything. They admired the outline for a while.

"The ancestor of the Senkaimon Gates." Nemu commented, breaking the silence.

"Ancestor?" Uryuu questioned.

"Before the Shinigami learned to domesticate Hell Butterflies in order to guide them through the realms' boundaries, those seals were used as means of transportation from one place to another. But they had two major disadvantages: drawing those complex seals was too time-consuming, and their inflexibility, since there should always be one seal at the departing spot and another at the arriving spot. Eventually they fell out of use in favor of the more versatile Senkaimon Gates.

"The activation of those seals is simple: one must cast some spiritual energy onto it, then step on the central circle to be teleported to the counterpart seal." She finished, just as Alyssa nodded to the explanation.

"Exactly, Nemu-san. Good that you're familiar with the Portal Squares. So you know what to expect." She said, fetching the holy water vial from her belt. The Rooder then proceeded to spray some water over the rune, making its layout start to glow and releasing little sparks. She walked to the portal center, Uryuu and Nemu following close. Slowly the entire chamber turned white...

.

Once the whiteness faded, they were no longer in that chamber. Heck, they weren't even in the Hamilton House anymore. Right now, they stood on another Portal Square, located somewhere else. Looking around, the Quincy recognized structures resembling tombstones: it was a graveyard. And a creepy one, for that matter: the sky was dark, the air, chilly, and there was barely any illumination, the scarce light providing only enough to discern a trail among the tombs.

"Alyssa, where are we?" asked a very disturbed Uryuu, betrayed by a faint hint of fear. God, how he hated graveyards!

"It's my predecessors' atonement place," the Rooder answered, a bit dismayed for having to return there. "In the course of centuries, many of our warriors have fallen during the battle against the Entities and other evil spirits. This is where their souls were trapped after their deaths, until I released them a few years ago." She pointed at the trail. "We should follow that trail. It will take us to the entrance of the Clock Tower."

She started walking, the other two following behind. As they proceeded, Uryuu noticed Alyssa's poorly-concealed discomfort about that place. He couldn't help but suspect she was hiding something from him, but he wouldn't bring up this issue now. Right now, they should just focus on rescuing Dennis.

At the path's end, they reached an ample section of the graveyard, surrounded by walls in ruin. In the middle, stood two twin tombstones, to which Alyssa headed. She stopped in front of one of the tombstones and gazed at it. Then she proceeded to the other one and did the same. That picked Uryuu's curiosity, so he approached the monument and observed it closely, just to realize there was a hole on it. And, fit into the hole, there was a circular plate with a sun-like symbol carved. As the Quincy tried to guess what was that for, he heard Alyssa's voice.

"It's missing," the Rooder girl commented, her fingertips trailing the outline of a similar hole in the other tombstone. "The compass is missing."

"Compass? What do you mean?" the young man questioned.

"In this tombstone there should have been another compass, a round plate just like the one you're seeing there," she replied, pointing at the tombstone Uryuu was close to. "But now it's missing. We need that compass to open the passage to the Clock..."

Hardly had she finished, the trio simultaneously felt an abrupt eerie feeling: it was a killing intent towards them. They immediately ran to each other and positioned back to back, in order to keep a 360º watch. Uryuu and Alyssa summoned their bows and Nemu got into her fighting stance. Tense seconds had passed, as their senses were in high alert for any approaching thing.

"CATCH!" a voice screamed somewhere, just as a whirling blue projectile came flying in their direction. Uryuu was the first to spot it: there was no time to intercept it with an arrow.

"Watch out!" he shouted, pushing the two girls out of the way, before tossing himself to the ground. The projectile missed him by a hair string, hitting the wall and leaving a deep crack on it.

The trio turned to the direction the attack came from, but due to the darkness, they couldn't see the attacker. Nevertheless, Uryuu decided to force the enemy's appearance.

"Show yourself!" he demanded, shooting a barrage of arrows at the middle of the darkness. Not even a second had passed when a figure suddenly _materialized_ right in front of him. Before he could react, Uryuu was met on the face by a fist, being sent airborne backwards. Since the Quincy was between the girls, in a stunning display of speed, the figure stretched its right arm and leg in opposite directions, kicking Alyssa and punching Nemu in the gut at once, sending them flying as well. Finally the attacker somersaulted back and landed on the top of a tombstone.

"He he, too slow!" the attacker mocked, now fully visible to the warriors.

The Rooder girl instantly recognized his features: the pale and half-naked body, fully covered in red tribal tattoos, the bald head and the same arrogant attitude, except for two wakizashis (Japanese short swords) in his hands instead of axes, a hole in the middle of his chest and a white mask vestige over his chin, resembling a goatee. The Subordinate who had killed her mother and so many other Rooders in the past: the 'Chopper'.

As those memories rushed, Alyssa's face scowled deeply. "You murderer! I've sent you once to Hell for what you did to my mom, and I shall do it again!" she cursed, anger building up inside her. The assassin just sadistically sneered, while the girl pulled her bow string and aimed at him.

Uryuu found himself shocked by that revelation. "Alyssa, is that the Subordinate who killed Nancy Hamilton?"

She nodded. "Yes, and not only my mom, but many of my predecessors too. He even trapped their souls in this forsaken place, using their suffering as his source of power." She pointed out.

Now the Quincy understood her discomfort: this was the place where she probably had avenged her mother's murder. Right off, he pictured his own grandfather and kinsmen, slaughtered by the Shinigami. And mainly, he remembered how Souken's soul was experimented just to satisfy some mad captain's curiosity. Gradually, anger started building up inside him as well. For a moment, he let off his coolness, his face now showing a noticeable disgust. He ended up arming his bow too: it had just become personal for him.

"Oh, so you want to fight? Great, otherwise there would be no fun," Chopper taunted, fetching something out of his cloth belt. "Anyway, you'd have to pass through me first if you want to go to the Clock Tower." He stated, displaying a circular metal piece with a moon-like symbol carved.

"It's the missing compass!" Alyssa shouted. "We have to take it from him!"

"Just one more reason to fight him." Uryuu said, as he fired some arrows at the enemy. However none hit, as the Subordinate seemed to simply fade away and the projectiles passed straight. In a blink of eyes, Chopper appeared right beside him and slashed his blade at the Quincy, who managed to block it with his bow. Still the impact's force caused the young man to stagger back a little.

Nemu then shunpo-ed next to the assassin and threw a punch to him, which he defended with his forearm. Next she attempted a diagonal kick. He saw it coming and leapt back out of the way. As he landed, his figure vanished in the thin air to escape an arrow fired by Alyssa, just to materialize himself again behind her, ready to swing down his swords at her. The girl's eyes widened in dread as she knew she wouldn't react fast enough to dodge that.

She would have been dead if another arrow hadn't been shot at the Subordinate by Uryuu, forcing the assassin to vanish again and reappear some yards away. The trio took this opportunity to regroup itself.

"What the heck? Is he teleporting?" the Quincy exclaimed. "Either that, or he's too fast."

Alyssa agreed. "He was fast before, but nothing compared to it now. Is it also Aizen's doing?"

"Ha ha ha. Exactly!" Chopper laughed, amused by the comments. Then he disappeared again, reappearing instantly on the top of a wall. "This is what we call **Sonido** (_Spanish: Sound_), the Arrancar acceleration technique. With that, we can move so quick, it's almost like teleportation. Not even the eye can keep up with our speed."

Uryuu narrowed his eyes at that information. 'It's just like the Hirenkyaku for us, Quincies, and the Shunpo for the Shinigami... the Hougyoku's powers go far beyond I had imagined if it can bestow such skills on Hollows.' he mentally concluded. Nonetheless, he had to keep his mind cool. It wasn't the first time he fought an agile foe, having done it plenty of times during his lifetime. He knew how to deal with them, so he started thinking on a strategy.

Soon, the young man approached the girls and stood between them. He leaned his head over to Nemu, though never taking his eyes off the enemy. "Lieutenant, do you think you can hold him... just for a few seconds?" he whispered.

The raven-haired girl glanced at him, a bit baffled by his request, yet didn't question it, as she was used to simply obey orders. "Yes." Was her answer.

Next, Uryuu leaned over to Alyssa and whispered. "Alyssa, the lieutenant will try to hold this guy for a few instants. As she does, bind him with one of your chains of judgement."

"But what good would it do?" the brunette whispered back, still keeping the enemy on sight. "Don't you remember the first Subordinate? He shattered the chains like they were nothing."

"We need only to delay him a bit. Speed is clearly his advantage, but so far he has been only dodging our attacks. If we manage to slow him down long enough, we can land a full blow on him," he explained. "Let me do it, for I believe my Licht Regen is faster."

Alyssa looked at him. She felt confidence in his words, so she nodded in response. But... just to make sure, from behind their backs, she discreetly handed a small purse to Uryuu. As he shifted his eyes to take a glance at it, she stopped him.

"Don't look! Just keep it with you. It's going to help, I promise." She murmured. The young man raised an eyebrow, but he trusted her word, hence he just attached the purse to his belt. Finally they both prepared their spiritual bows.

"Enough chit-chat! Time to meet your fates!" Chopper announced, sonido-ing towards the trio. Simultaneously, Nemu shunpo-ed directly to him, Uryuu jumped to one side and Alyssa sprinted to other.

Chopper and Nemu met right in mid-air. He took the offensive, trying to slash her down, but she grabbed his wrists before the move connected. The Subordinate struggled to pull his arms out of her hold, the girl keeping a firm grip to avoid so. So he lifted his leg, intending to kick her away. Before he could perform it though, an arrow hit him right on the side. Immediately he felt something binding him: it was a chain of judgement, summoned by Alyssa, who took that opportunity to aim at him.

"Lieutenant, MOVE!" Chopper heard someone yelling. It was the Quincy-boy, now gliding right over him, his bow ready to fire. The Shinigami woman released her grip and quickly backed away from the assassin. Now with the coast free, Uryuu could unleash all his power.

"Licht Regen!" Uryuu called out, casting literally a rain of blue projectiles onto the Subordinate. As for this, he realized he couldn't run with the chain binding him, and there was no time to break it. So he did the only thing he could...

"DISMEMBER, **TRINCHADOR** (_Spanish: Chopper_)!" he shouted, crossing his swords at front. The mass of arrows mercilessly dropped all over him, lifting a large cloud of dust which blocked everyone's view. The Quincy landed on his feet, panting slightly due to the amount of power used. It was still wearing, but slowly he was getting used to that. The trio anxiously awaited the cloud to subside, expecting to see the Subordinate in the same mangled state as the previous one.

However, for everyone's astonishment, when the vision cleared, Harold was still intact. Worse, he wasn't even hurt! And his looks had also changed: his head and torso were still bare, but now he was wearing a pair of white shoulder and arm guards, armored gloves, a tattered cloth instead of his usual pants, and sandals replacing his shoes. The most significant changes however were his weapons: his wakizashis had morphed into two short, wide bladed-swords, with jagged edges and linked to his wrists by chains. Overall, his entire appearance resembled a Roman gladiator.

A sinister blue glow exhaled from his blades as they were lowered from the defensive position. His evil grin reached from ear to ear. "Foolish kids. Don't think I'll fall for the same trick as that idiotic Robert," he mocked. "I, Harold Powell, am in a whole different level than him".

Despite not showing, none of the spiritual warriors could deny the growing inner feeling of dread.

* * *

><p><strong>Harold Powell is Chopper's real name in the game. Any similarities between his Resurrección and Kratos from 'God of War' is merely unintentional (is it?) :)<strong>

**Just a warning: updates may come out a bit slower from now on. The reason is, since the next Subordinates are the strongest ones, I'd like to do a more meticulous writing. Everything in order to make their battles truly memorable ones.**


	7. True Purpose

**I do not own Bleach nor Clock Tower. They belong to Tite Kubo and Capcom, respectively.**

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 07 – TRUE PURPOSE<strong>

**Soul Society, 12th Squad's Research and Development Institute**

In the same previous dimly-lit room, two figures stood next to the so-nominated spiritual wave detector. One of them was Hiyosu, the big-headed scientist, and the other was Kurotsuchi Mayuri, the 12th Squad captain and the former's superior.

"Report, Hiyosu." The captain ordered to his underling.

The scientist inputted a few commands at the detector's keyboard and displayed a few readings at the equipment's large screen. "Two out of the five targeted spiritual signatures have disappeared. Most likely, obliterated. The remaining three are still active, but they don't seem to be in London anymore." He informed.

Mayuri frowned at that report. "Two down and the others not there anymore? So where are their presences coming from?" he demanded, his tone now denoting impatience.

"They are still in the Living World, but inside an isolated realm within its boundaries. Even the sensors are having troubles to detect them, so we can't pinpoint their exact location." Hiyosu pointed out, which unnerved the captain even more.

"Are you saying we can't locate them?" the chief scientist angrily shouted. "What the hell Nemu is doing? It's about time she came in contact. Hasn't she sent any reports yet?"

"No, sir. Not yet." The underling answered, almost murmuring, out of fear of his boss.

The captain was ready to outburst in rage, when another of his underlings showed up in the room. It was a tall male Shinigami, with short, spiked black hair, and tiny horns on his forehead, wearing the same lab coat as the others.

"Captain Kurotsuchi, I bring urgent news." The newcomer said.

"What is? Speak up, Akon!" an annoyed Mayuri grumbled.

"We received a request from lieutenant Kurotsuchi to have her limit lifted. She claimed to be in a safe area, where it won't affect the Living World." Akon reported.

That piece of information seemed to ease the captain's anger, as the usual maniacal grin returned to his face. 'I see. Looks like things are still on the move, after all.' He mused.

* * *

><p><strong>Unknown place<strong>

Alyssa, Uryuu and Nemu stared at the Arrancar's Resurrección in dread, although the Shinigami woman didn't change her stoic demeanor. Even after a direct hit of the Quincy's powerful release, Harold still stood there, unharmed.

"How's that possible?" Uryuu questioned, shocked and a bit weary from his release. "My Licht Regen didn't put a single scratch on him. It had been more than enough to defeat John Haighs last time."

The monster snorted at that comparison. "I told you not to put me in the same level as those two morons you have fought. My Resurrección's **Hierro** (_Spanish: Iron_) is the strongest among the Subordinates. It can't even be compared to theirs."

"'Hierro'?" Alyssa wondered.

"Our Arrancar defense. By condensing our spiritual energy, we can form an invisible protection layer over ourselves. Only high-level Arrancars can create a steel-strong Hierro" he gloated, showing a heck amount of overconfidence by revealing this information. Then he pointed one of the swords at them, in a taunting stance. "Hence those pitiful arrows of yours will never pierce through my skin."

The trio found itself thunderstruck: not only that guy was fast, but also the most resistant Subordinate. Indeed he was in a whole different level from the previous ones. Though Alyssa knew it shouldn't have come as a surprise: she recalled Chopper being able to block even her Rooder release in the past, and having to fight him twice in a row. Eventually, she had managed to defeat him, but only with the old Rooders' help. Now that they weren't around, she wasn't so sure if she could take the monster down again, especially with his powers enhanced.

"Now, brats... you should have realized none of you stand a chance against me. Just give up and I promise you a quick death." He mocked. Alyssa and Uryuu narrowed their eyes at him.

"We're not done yet." Shouted the young Quincy, shooting a projectile at the enemy. So did Alyssa. Harold didn't even bother to dodge the pair of arrows, as he simply swatted them away like nothing. That move left him open, so Nemu seized the chance and shunpo-ed to him, aiming for a side kick at his head. The blow connected. However, the Arrancar just stayed still, not budging even an inch. It was as though he hadn't felt the kick at all. Fast as a lightning, he brought his fist onto her and punched her away, sending her airborne next to her companions. They ran to her side, but sighed in relief as they saw she was fine.

'He wasn't kidding when he said his defense had gotten stronger.' Uryuu thought, a bit impressed for none of the attacks having any effect.

"Now it's my turn." Harold announced, just before jumping absurdly high and launching one of his chain blades at the youngsters. They quickly dispersed to avoid the sweeping attack, as it hit the ground and opened a large fissure. Before the Arrancar could withdraw the weapon, the two archers fired more arrows at him. But it proved itself useless, because the projectiles got simply deflected, causing no damage.

Prior to the landing, the monster suddenly vanished out of their sights and reappeared in front of Uryuu, ready to slash his sword down at him. The young Quincy lifted his bow and managed to block the attack, but Harold kept pushing his sword against the bow, in an attempt to subdue the opponent. Eventually, the spiritual warrior fell to his knees, overpowered by the assassin's massive strength.

"How long do you think it's gonna hold? This bow of yours isn't a shield." Harold hissed, surrounding his other sword with a blue aura. Then he swung the sword at the bow, shattering it immediately and making a gash at Uryuu's shoulder. The young man let out a cry as he staggered back a little, pained by the wound.

The monster prepared to strike at the now defenseless Quincy, when an arrow hit him square in the face, distracting him. Taking the opportunity, Nemu used her Shunpo to grab Uryuu and help him escape, soon regrouping with Alyssa (who had shot the arrow).

"Uryuu, are you okay?" Alyssa asked to her partner.

The young man nodded, his hand placed over his wounded shoulder. "Yes, it's nothing serious." He assured, despite the large crimson stain on his white mantle.

"He he. You're only postponing the inevitable, brats," Harold taunted. "As I said, nothing can pass through my Hierro."

The trio stood there, staring at the enemy, pondering what to do next.

'Seems like I'll have to use _it_ sooner than planned.' Uryuu mentally concluded, as he reached behind his back and pulled one of the silver appendages hanging from his belt. Next, he held it at eye level.

"Ha, what do you intend to do with that little thing?" the Arrancar arrogantly spat. In response, a glowing blue thin blade emerged from the appendage, much resembling a Star Wars light saber. For a split second, the monster's eyes widened in surprise. "Ho ho. Nice trick!" he sarcastically commented.

"I present you **Seele Schneider** (_German: Soul Cutter_), one of the greatest Quincy artifacts." Uryuu proudly explained, as the blade gleamed more intense. Alyssa beheld her partner's new weapon in awe. Not only it was beautiful and elegant, but it also seemed very powerful. Before she could make any comments, Uryuu cut in.

"Alyssa, stand back. I'll handle him." He warned. The girl however widened her eyes at that request.

"Uryuu, you can't be serious about fighting that Subordinate just by yourself." She protested.

"Arrows won't work on this guy. Close quarter combat is more befitting for this situation," he turned to Nemu. "You too, lieutenant. Since you don't have your zanpakutou, you shouldn't fight this enemy barehanded." The Shinigami said nothing though. She just stood there, deadpanned, to which Uryuu took as a positive answer. So he turned back to Harold and got himself into a kendo-like fighting stance.

However Alyssa wasn't willing to let him fight alone and positioned at his side, with her right arm extended forward. Uryuu had opened his mouth to protest, when the girl's hand started glowing green. As the glow increased, she motioned her arm in a diagonal arc out, leaving behind a green fiery trace (which strangely not burning her hand). Only then, Uryuu realized that light had emanated from her clover pendant, shaping itself into an actual flaming sword. By that, the girl looked at him, slyly smiling.

"You're not the only close ranged fighter here." She pointed out, getting into the same fighting stance as Uryuu.

The young man couldn't hold a chuckle at that. So that was how she summoned her pendant's powers: by materializing some sort of weaponry out of it... practically in the same way as his Quincy cross. The more time passed, the more he got convinced how similar Quincies and Rooders still remained, no matter how long both factions had been divided. 'God, life's surely full of surprises.' He mused, turning his attention back to the enemy.

Nevertheless, the Arrancar didn't look fazed. He was convinced that, in case of a close ranged fight, his swordsmanship expertise would surpass theirs. "Whatever. Those fancy swords of yours won't make any difference." He disdained. Instantly, he launched himself towards the youngsters, eager to shed more blood. Alyssa and Uryuu also dashed at him, ready for a swords clash.

Harold targeted the Rooder girl first, attempting a side slice, which was promptly blocked by her sword. Uryuu didn't waste any time and went in his partner's aid. The Subordinate saw him coming and quickly pushed Alyssa away, whirling around to defend against the incoming blade. As the attack was blocked, Harold instantly passed to the offensive, advancing and swinging his jagged blades at the young man with such ferocity, that Uryuu could barely keep up with the blows.

"What's wrong? All you do is defend," Harold provoked, still mercilessly attacking. "Spent so much time with your bow that unlearned how to use a sword?"

Uryuu ignored the taunt and just focused on blocking the slashes, while being forced back.

Suddenly the assassin raised his foot and kicked his opponent in the chest. Uryuu wasn't expecting that, so he ended up pushed to the ground, almost losing his grip on the blade. Harold then turned to face Alyssa, who was now darting at him, her sword raised above her head. She tried to swing it down at him, but he rapidly side leapt and missed the attack. Before the Rooder could straighten herself up, he threw one of the chain blades at her. But instead of cutting, the weapon wrapped itself around her legs, being promptly pulled afterwards and making her fall with a yelp.

It was Uryuu's turn to intervene, who, having previously got himself back up, brought down Seele Schneider at the Arrancar. The blow didn't connect however, as Harold deflected it with his arm guard and sonido-ed away from him. Once the monster was far enough, the Quincy helped Alyssa back on her feet.

Pissed off by the constant disturbances, the assassin decided to finish it now. "Damn annoying insects! I'm done holding back." He announced, as his swords started glowing blue once again. He jumped towards his opponents and, in mid-air, began to rapidly spin, the stretched chain blades spinning as well, greatly increasing his attack radius. This sudden move had caught the two spiritual archers by surprise and they hardly had time to lift their blades in order to defend themselves.

Seele Schneider and the Rooder flaming sword, however, proved themselves incapable of completely shielding their wielders against the rotating attack. The razor wind caused by the air pressure, added to the weapons' impact, resulted in such a violent clash that ended up sending the youngsters yards away.

Time seemed to slow down as they flew through the air, blood gushing out of the multiples cuts on their arms and torsos, until they fell hard on their backs. For a few moments, neither of them could muster the strength to get up, as they clenched their teeth and winced in pain, as if they had been thrown in a fan. Alyssa, particularly, was taking it the hardest. Because she had been out of actual combat for all those years, she had grown unused to this kind of pain.

Harold stopped spinning and looked down at the fallen warriors. "He he. Liked that? In the end, those swords of yours served for nothing." Then he approached the Quincy. "Now, to finish the Quincy-boy off..." He said, preparing to give the coup de grace...

"_Limit release__._" Murmured a female, almost inaudible, voice.

That's when a massive spiritual power abruptly started pressuring through the entire area... massive enough to lift small pieces of debris from earth. The Subordinate stopped in his tracks the moment he felt it, astounded by its magnitude, just like the two youngsters, who were still conscious enough to sense it. As they looked around for the owner of that enormous power, they spotted a huge blue pillar of spiritual energy rising up to the sky. But what really caught their eyes was the pillar base: the Gotei 13 lieutenant, Kurotsuchi Nemu.

Unknown to them, a thistle-flower symbol, tattooed on her upper left breast, was fading out while all of this happened.

Harold stared in shock at the Shinigami woman. Since she wasn't currently taking part in the battle, he just had assumed she had given up and, therefore, had practically forgotten about her, leaving her to be dealt with later. But now, such power could not be ignored. Where did all that energy came from? Why hadn't he noticed it before?

As the energy stream ceased, Nemu slightly flexed her knees, as though in preparation to sprint. "Engaging target." She robotically said, suddenly disappearing out of everyone's sight. A half-second later, she reappeared just a few inches from the off-guard Subordinate, delivering a roundhouse kick to his head, which sent him airborne right into a nearby tombstone, crashing it altogether.

More baffled than hurt, Harold lay among the debris, his expression blending rage and confusion. 'How did she...? I couldn't even see her when she attacked me.' His mind rushed. Soon, rage took over, as he jumped back to his feet. "YOU BITCH!" he yelled, throwing his chain blade directly at her.

Nemu however simply sidestepped and let the weapon pass straight. As the blade passed, she managed to grab the chain behind and promptly yanked it, the monster being pulled along. Once he was close enough, she gave a powerful uppercut to his chin (almost cracking his goatee mask in the process) and sent him flying up again. He let out a grunt the moment he fell soundly on his back.

"How's that possible?" the Arrancar shouted, as he stood up. "Moments ago, none of your attacks could even make me budge, let alone escape my eyes. How come you've got so powerful?"

The raven-haired woman stared at him, in her ever-blank expression. "My seal has been removed. Now, I'm allowed to fight at full power." She answered.

At the confused look on both the assassin and her companions' faces, she continued. "During missions, all captains and vice-captains have a seal placed in their bodies in order to purposely restrict their powers up to 20%, further avoiding any collateral effects to the Living World." She paused, then resumed the explanation. "However, we are now in an isolated dimension from the Living World, hence Seireitei had granted me permission to release the seal."

From confusion, the expression on their faces switched to astonishment (in the Arrancar's case, fear too). '20%? She was using only 20% of her strength?' seemed to be common thought rushing in both Uryuu and Alyssa's mind right now. One could only imagine what was rushing in the Arrancar's.

Not wasting any more time, Nemu shunpo-ed, instantly covering the distance between her and Harold. Before any reaction, she threw a palm strike to his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Even more enraged, he swung his blade at her, but she caught his wrist in mid-attack and, while keeping his arm on a hold, delivered an elbow thrust right to his nose, the impact making him stumble back.

Noticing his bleeding nose, Harold was now fuming, smoke almost erupting from his ears. His weapons started glowing again and he begun spinning rapidly, in the same manner he did with his previous opponents. Nemu watched the rotating attack advancing in her direction, but it didn't seem to disturb her. Instead of running away, she ran _towards_ it and, once she was close enough, she rolled under the spinning chain blades and extended her both legs out, landing a double flip kick to his mid-section. That blow halted the attack and knocked the monster onto the ground. It took Harold several moments to register that.

While he lay flat there, the lieutenant jumped over him and began a sequence of quick and strong punches to all over his body. The punches were so fast that her fists looked almost like a blur: an external observer would only see the Subordinate's body twitching up and down, at the rhythmic sounds of slams.

Having previously recomposed themselves, yet still weary from the wounds, the two spiritual archers watched the battle, dumbfounded. They were amazed at how the lieutenant was beating the hell out of the man who had beaten the hell out of them. Unnecessary to say, being saved by a Shinigami wasn't exactly sitting right with Uryuu. Well, that was becoming a common occurrence anyway...

That continued on, until Nemu stopped her pounding and looked at her foe. His body just lay there, motionless, like he was dead. And he could be too: he was all bruised, his eyes had turned pale, a thread of blood leaked from his mouth, and mainly, the giant crater formed around his body, due to the punches' impact. The lieutenant knew he wasn't though: by sensing his dark energy still lurking inside, she concluded he had been only knocked out.

By then, Uryuu had approached the crater, Alyssa following behind. From the edge, they glanced at the fallen Arrancar at the Shinigami's feet. "Is he dead?" the Rooder girl asked.

Nemu shook her head. "No, he is only unconscious."

"Good." The Quincy replied, stepping forward and preparing his blade for the finishing blow. Alyssa, however, stood right where she was, unsure what to do: that assassin was a scoundrel, no doubt, and much likely he deserved to die. But, to kill in cold blood an already incapacitated foe, that was something she couldn't totally endorse. For now, she was feeling divided between telling Uryuu to stop or simply letting him do it. Nemu, however, noticed what Uryuu was about to do and walked in front of him, holding her hand up.

"Sorry, Quincy-san. This Arrancar has more value to me, alive." She remarked. This made his face turn into a scowl.

"You must be joking! He's too dangerous to be kept alive!" he protested.

But Nemu nonchalantly stayed still. "Mayuri-sama ordered me to collect samples of those new hybrids. Bringing one alive would certainly be of more value for experimentation."

At the mention of that name, Uryuu felt his blood boil. "To hell with what that bastard wants! I will..."

He was abruptly interrupted when he felt something wrapping around his foot, just to be pulled and dragged away, afterwards. Once everyone else figured out what had happened, the young man was already stretched out on the ground, a foot pressed against his chest to prevent him from standing and a sword tip only a few inches from his neck. It was Harold, who, while the trio ranted among themselves, had recuperated his consciousness and took the chance to strike. Still laid on the crater's center, he had scanned around for the closest person nearby, except for Nemu (obviously not to risk getting another pounding). That ended up being Uryuu, so he had discreetly reached for his chain blade and, in a blink of eyes, threw the weapon at him. He had achieved capturing the Quincy and now rendered him hostage.

"Uryuu!" Alyssa shouted, wielding her flaming sword. Nemu didn't say anything, but she also prepared to dash at the enemy.

"Woah, don't move!" the Arrancar warned, bringing his blade closer to the hostage's throat. The girls were forced to hold their horses, or it would endanger their fellow warrior. "One step closer... and this guy here... is a goner!" he threatened between breaths, as Uryuu ineffectively struggled to move that foot out of him.

The Shinigami woman, in her inner thoughts, couldn't explain why she was hesitating. Obeying her captain should have been everything for her. As the 12th Squad vice-captain, she had a mission to fulfill, so even if the young Quincy got killed, it shouldn't have mattered to her. Even so... for some reason... she didn't want him to die. 'Why?' was the question hammering her mind. It bothered her to no end not understanding what was wrong with her.

Although still sore from the previous beating, seeing that everything was again under control, the Subordinate grinned. "Now, Alyssa... how about a trade? If you accept it... your partner here... and the one in the Clock Tower... shall be spared." He proposed.

The brunette raised an eyebrow at that, suspicious. "Spared? Weren't you sent here to kill Uryuu?"

"That was part of the reason. But, given the current odds..." he glared at Nemu and continued. "I won't be able to achieve everything... so I'll stick to the primary objective."

Alyssa frowned. There was more than just killing Uryuu? What would that be? They wanted revenge, of course, but she truly doubted it was the primary objective, let alone to spare Uryuu and Dennis for that. In fact, if it was revenge, it would have made more sense if they killed them both to maximize her suffering.

"In exchange for what?" she questioned, regarding the trade he had offered.

A devious smirk crossed the assassin's face. "In exchange... you shall hand over yourself for the Ritual of Engagement."

Those last words hit the girl like a brick wall. Her eyes widened, her lips parted in shock. Actually, shock being an understatement: it was absolute terror! She felt her entire body going numb, remaining like that for several seconds until she could sort her thoughts out to reply.

"Liar," she muttered, her mind refusing to accept what she was hearing. "You're lying!" she repeated, in a louder tone. "Why are you carrying that wretched ritual out again? I'm no longer fifteen, so what's the point?"

"That you don't need to know," Harold coldly spat. "Just give me your answer: will you save your friends... or not?"

Rage and dread was plastered all over Alyssa's face. All of a sudden, every single horror of that nightmarish day rushed inside her mind. The memories of that gruesome ritual seemed to pursue her for the eternity. When she had thought it was finally gone, those demons appeared out of nowhere and started haunting her over and over. She clenched her fists as she glared at the Subordinate's mocking face, right before her.

On his part, Uryuu had heard the entire conversation. He immediately recalled the references on that 'Ritual of Engagement' in the journals he'd read. And judging by Alyssa's reaction at that name, it could only be assumed it was something horrifying. Horrifying enough to might have caused a trauma on her, maybe even being the reason she had quit the Rooders' path. Now he had an idea of why the journals pages on that issue had been ripped out. Despite not knowing the details, he concluded this ritual shouldn't be allowed to happen, no matter what.

"Alyssa, don't do it! Don't accept the..." he shouted, but got roughly shut by the Subordinate, who crushed him harder to the ground.

"Quiet, you!" Harold ordered, turning again to Alyssa. "Your answer, Rooder!"

Uryuu clenched his teeth to prevent himself from screaming in pain, still trying in vain to pry the foot out of him. At the same time, he was pondering about his current options: he couldn't fight back the Arrancar, as his Seele Schneider had dropped out of his hand the moment he got pulled by the chain, and the others on his belt were behind him, obviously unreachable due to the fact he was lying on his back and pinned hard against the ground. He could summon his bow, nonetheless at this close distance, it would be useless against his restrainer. But if he did nothing, Alyssa would have to surrender herself for that 'god-knows-what' ritual, most likely for her own life. At end, there was just one conclusion: he would have to sacrifice himself in her place. It would at least give her the chance to finish this monster. 'If I have to die, I'll die as an honored Quincy.' He bravely mused.

Therefore, he turned his head to Alyssa and, once sure she was looking at him, he nodded, giving her a determined glance of 'go ahead'.

Alyssa seemed to have caught the message and, surprisingly, pointed her flaming sword forward and charged at the enemy, letting out a battle cry.

Harold displayed a bewildered expression, seeing the Rooder girl advancing against him, regardless of the fact he had a hostage. "Hey, didn't you hear? Stay back, or he dies!" he threatened, but to no avail: she was still advancing. Then, in an act of despair, he drew back his weapon to gather some momentum, and shot his blade towards the Quincy, ready to stab his neck mortally. Uryuu just shut his eyes, preparing to meet his demise...

Which never came, since the deadly blow was blocked...

Blocked by a violet-hued, hexagonal shield that had inexplicably materialized itself in front of the young man's head, defending him. The Arrancar found himself shocked at that. Where did the shield come from?

He didn't have time to ponder on that though, as Alyssa was now closely approaching him, her sword prompted for a thrust. Instinctively, Harold lifted his other blade to block it. It took only milliseconds, but time seemed much slower before the two weapons collided...

Until the Rooder's flaming sword pierced through the Arrancar's jagged blade, shattering it like glass.

The strike didn't stop however: with the remaining momentum, her weapon also impaled the monster through the stomach, its tip bursting forth his back, blood spewing everywhere.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" yelled the assassin, as what happened sank. He dizzily staggered back some steps, bleeding heavily due to the wound. "How... did you... pass through... my Hierro?" he groaned, blood soon dripping down his mouth.

Unknown to him, Alyssa was just as confused. She had only intended to push him away from Uryuu and maybe cause him a bit of damage, but she didn't expect to pierce through him. Gazing at her sword, she didn't know what to answer, until her partner, now able to stand, answered it instead.

"You want to know?" the young man said, massaging his chest area, sore thanks to the stomp. He fetched another Seele Schneider from his belt and activated it, showing its gleaming blade. "It was thanks to my Seele Schneider. I've weakened your Hierro." He stated.

Both Alyssa and the Subordinate stared at him, one of them, curious, and the other, shocked. "You're saying that petty sword of yours weakened my Hierro? Bullshit!" the Arrancar doubted.

"That was your mistake: Seele Schneider isn't a sword. Like a chainsaw, its blade vibrates at an extremely high frequency, of over 3 million times per second." That's when said blade begun making a buzzing noise. "Hence, it's not meant to cut, but to loosen the bounds between spirit particles," he adjusted his glasses and continued the explanation. "You know, the moment you said your Hierro is formed by condensing spiritual energy to layer yourself, I figured out I could gradually weaken it, slashing my Seele Schneider continuously against it. That way, Alyssa would eventually break through your defenses, even if I were defeated."

That last part left Harold choleric, as he reminded the Quincy only defending his swings. He had thought he was overcoming him, when actually his opponent was deliberately letting him attack, in order to enfeeble his Hierro. "You... sneaky bastard!" he cursed, in a suffocated voice.

"And that's not all. Seele Schneider still has another trump card," Uryuu proceeded. "We, Quincies, have the ability to absorb spiritual particles from the environment. Therefore, after loosening the bounds, we can easily claim for our own the spiritual particles from anything touched by its blade." He remarked, just as the enemy's chain blades (including the shattered one) and even part of his armor disintegrated into small snowflakes-like pieces, and got absorbed by the Quincy's body. With that, all the young man's previous wounds healed, as though they had never been.

"Damn it..." was the last thing the Subordinate uttered, before dropping face first to the ground.

Nemu walked up to his body and sensed his spiritual power. There was none. He was dead for sure, this time.

'Pity I couldn't take him alive,' she mentally commented. 'But just the corpse shall be enough for experimentation, hopefully.' Then she approached the two youngsters, to check on them.

"Quincy-san, Alyssa-san, are you alright?" she asked.

Uryuu's eyes squinted at her for a moment, resisting the urge to rant on the raven-haired woman. She may had saved him previously, but by trying to keep the Arrancar alive, she ironically ended up endangering his life again. Nevertheless, the monster was gone now and he wasn't going to dwell on it. "Yeah. But please treat Alyssa. She's still hurt." He said, dispelling his blade. So the Shinigami woman did.

While Nemu applied the 'miraculous' ointment on Alyssa's wounds, the brunette couldn't avoid commending Uryuu for the fight. "That was great, Uryuu! I never thought you had such amazing skills!"

The young man felt his cheeks burn a little at her praise, so he pretended to adjust his glasses to hide his embarrassment. "Don't give me all the credit, Alyssa. It was all teamwork. The lieutenant had weakened him beforehand. And you're the one who gave him the finishing blow, remember?"

By saying that, something immediately came to his mind...

"That reminds me... how did I survive that stab?" he wondered. "That shield appeared out of nowhere and saved me. What was that?" he asked, hoping any of the girls could respond it.

At that, Alyssa curved a sly smile. "Do you still have that purse I gave you?" she asked, a faint tone of pride in her voice. Uryuu picked said object and opened it to see its content: it was a small hexagonal-shaped crystal, with a transparent light-violet coloration. He was about to inquire, when his partner answered ahead.

"It's a rare artifact called Sigil Stone. A magic stone that protects its bearer from deadly blows, but it can be used just once. This one you have has just exhausted its use."

Uryuu's eyes slightly widened at that explanation. That Rooder artifact worked just like Inoue Orihime's **Shun Shun Rikka** (_Six Flowers of the Hibiscus Shield_. *A/N: those little fairies on her hair-clips*), by summoning a force field to protect someone from external attacks. The sole difference was the duration: Inoue's spell could be used multiple times. He had to admit: the Rooders were more resourceful than he expected.

"And I assume you only charged at the Arrancar because you were aware I had this with me."

Her smile then faded and switched to a grim expression. "I know you wanted me to attack, even if it meant sacrificing your life," she said in a strained tone. "But I couldn't do it, Uryuu. I can't bring myself to sacrifice a friend's life just so plainly. I simply can't."

A grimace appeared on his face as well. He had presumed she had done it out of duty, however, despite her brave mindset, she still held a soft heart, something that could prove fatal for a warrior. But who could blame her? Weren't that kindness and altruism that made them different from Aizen and the Hollows? Besides, he wasn't the one to talk too: moments ago, wasn't he willing to give up his own life to give her an edge on combat?

"So... you gave me this stone as some sort of insurance. Why haven't you told me before?" he scolded her, although in a playful way. This seemed to lift the mood up a little, as her face lit up.

"Well, I wasn't expecting you'd have to use it," she replied in a sheepish tone. "But then, you haven't told me about your Seele Schneider abilities either. So, I guess we're even now." She kind of joked back.

All that talk made Uryuu think: she didn't know about his Seele Schneider, and he didn't know about her Sigil Stone. Yet, in the end, they had unconsciously set up a combined strategy, which surprisingly ended up working. It was almost as though their minds were telepathically synchronized. Everything led to only one conclusion: they thought very much alike.

"You know, Alyssa," he started, getting her attention. "I don't say this kind of thing often, as I usually prefer to work alone, but... we do make a good team."

She just smiled in response.

* * *

><p><strong>Phew, this was a quite a chapter to write. Fight scenes are always the toughest to describe. But I finally did it!<strong>

**I know the Sigil Stone doesn't work like that (by summoning a shield), but I took some creative liberty to describe it similarly to Inoue's artifact and make it another connection to Bleach.**

**Any suggestions, corrections or doubts, I'd be glad to reply.**


	8. Double Trouble

**My sincere thanks to all the reviewers and people who have added this story to their favorites/alert subscriptions. It's this kind of recognition that spurs me to keep on writing.**

**I do not own Bleach nor Clock Tower. They belong to Tite Kubo and Capcom, respectively.**

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 08 – DOUBLE TROUBLE<strong>

Inserting the retrieved moon-crest compass into the tombstone, it started screwing inwards and halted. Almost immediately, the twin tombstones' centers begun shining and a huge magic rune appeared out of mid-air between them, bearing hexagonal shape, with two engraved intertwined snakes facing each other.

"Here's the entrance to the Clock Tower." Alyssa pointed out.

"All right, let's go in," Uryuu said, turning to Nemu. "Are you coming, lieutenant?"

The Shinigami woman, who was knelt over Harold's corpse, was handling some surgery-like tools spread over an unfolded fabric. At the Quincy's calling, she raised her head to answer.

"You two go ahead. I have a few things to take care first." Said that, she just returned to the task at hand.

The young man felt his stomach twist in knots. He knew way too well what she meant by 'a few things', judging by those creepy gears she was handling. And even if she wasn't, she had mentioned before being ordered to collect samples on the Arrancar and, given there was one right there, it wasn't hard to guess. For a moment, he remembered his own grandfather and wondered if he had been experimented in the same way. A hint of anger came to him, but it was quickly shoved off, as it wasn't the time to dwell over this issue.

Turning back to the portal, he walked towards it, Alyssa following along. As they entered, their entire surroundings whitened...

.

The instant their vision cleared back, the graveyard was no longer. The portal had taken them somewhere else. A rocky valley, it seemed.

"So, this is where the Subordinates' hideout is located?" Uryuu asked.

"Yes," Alyssa replied, pointing at a nearby stone gate. "Beyond that gate, stands the Clock Tower."

Indeed it did. Looking at the pointed direction, Uryuu sighted a tall round tower, with a large quadrangular footing. Judging by its architecture and the adorning sculptures on the walls, one could date it from the Dark Age, as it displayed both Ancient Roman pagan deities and the Middle Age's preference for Gothic motifs. At the top, beheld the clock face, which gave the tower's name. And inside it, awaited the Arrancars, Aizen's new minions.

"This place... I know it's stupid to ask, but where it is, exactly?" the Quincy asked, curious.

"It's a realm that reflects the past. Centuries ago, that tower stood where my house currently is."

Uryuu looked a bit surprised at that. The Hamilton House stood exactly where the Clock Tower used to be? It couldn't be simply coincidence. No, as a logical and questioning person, Uryuu never believed in mere chance. After all, every single event in his life to-date had some sort of reason to happen, either direct or indirectly. Hadn't his grandfather died, he wouldn't have been spurred to train harder and, thus, would've never become a great Quincy warrior. Hadn't he met Kurosaki Ichigo, he would've never learned to trust others again. It was thanks to that, he had started regarding the Shinigami (or at least some of them) in a less suspicious light. And, finally, hadn't he lost his powers, he would've never met Alyssa, retrieved his powers in a even higher level and found about Aizen's Arrancars. In his opinion, everything had a greater purpose to be.

All that pondering suddenly made him recall something he was meaning to ask Alyssa, yet couldn't while the vice-captain was around. Now that she wasn't anymore, it was the time.

"Uryuu, we should go." The Rooder said, walking towards the tower.

"Alyssa, wait," the young man called out, making the girl halt and turn to him. "There's something I need to ask."

"What is?" she inquired, a bit confused.

Normally, Uryuu wasn't the type to shoot questions bluntly, especially ones regarding sensitive issues. But, given the circumstances, there was no time to beat around the bushes. So he just went straight to the point.

"What's this Ritual of Engagement that Subordinate had mentioned?"

It was a simple question, yet it managed to make the entire mood go tense. Alyssa first widened her eyes in shock, then her forehead furrowed in a saddened expression, followed by a look away, with her head slightly lowered. It wasn't like that question wasn't expected. After all, that last Subordinate had said it out loud and, most likely, Uryuu had read something about it in her grandfather's journals. Questioning about it was inevitable. Nevertheless, she still couldn't summon the courage to bring it up.

Noticing his partner's hesitation, the Quincy had to reason with her. "Alyssa, I have to know if I'm going to help you. If this ritual is so important that Aizen is sending his troops just to carry it out, I need to know why."

Alyssa sighed in distress. Uryuu was right, no matter how much she wanted to avoid that subject, he had to know. After all, her enemy was no longer the Subordinates only, but this Aizen-guy too. It wasn't her war alone anymore. Her partner and she now shared a common foe and any given information would increase their chances against this new threat.

With a reluctant nod, she finally agreed. "Uryuu... what I'm about to tell you... I haven't told to anyone so far... not even to Dennis." She stammered.

So she proceeded to tell him everything about the ritual: the purpose, the way of performing, the Rooder age limit of fifteen... and, most important, the one who had attempted to perform the Ritual of Engagement.

At the explanation end, the young Quincy felt his body completely paralyzed in horror. Never had he heard something so gruesome in his entire life. Previously, he had assumed the fact of an Entity feeding on the suffering of tortured souls was revolting enough. Still, the way an Entity was created... that surpassed everything in terms of disgust.

"Your own... grandfather?" Uryuu muttered, swallowing a lump in mid-sentence.

She said nothing, nonetheless her silence was already answering for her.

That was too much. It was no surprise Alyssa had become so traumatized and decided to quit the Rooders' path. Dick Hamilton, her own grandfather, her own flesh and blood, the person she trusted the most besides her mother... willing to sacrifice her only granddaughter and, afterwards, drink the blood from her still beating heart... how could anyone come up with something so sick?

"Still, if the ritual was supposed to take place exactly on your 15th birthday, why are they after you?"

"That, unfortunately, I don't know." She said in trembling tone.

That's when he saw Alyssa's shoulders tensing up, her fists clenching tight as to refrain herself from crying. Uryuu immediately felt bad for bringing up all those painful memories again.

"I'm sorry, Alyssa. I didn't mean to..."

But the girl held her hand up. "Don't apologize. You had the right to know. After all, you had told me what happened to your grandfather. It was just fair to tell you in exchange," she recomposed herself and took a deep breath, before continuing. "And, somehow, I feel relieved to get this load off my chest. You're the first one I've told all of this."

"Even your boyfriend doesn't know it, you said."

"Dennis is aware of the ritual's existence, and that my grandfather was the one behind it. However he doesn't know the purpose and the details. At first, he asked about it, but, as I could never bring myself to talk, he stopped pressing the issue."

"He worries about you," Uryuu gently assured. "He didn't want to bring those memories back and let them haunt your mind."

"I know, and I love him for being so understanding," her expression switched to a braver one. "But I knew, eventually, I would have to face them back and, on account of that, I truly appreciate your help, Uryuu. I can't thank you enough for assisting in my mission."

Uryuu smirked at her. That girl kept impressing him, especially on what concerned her willpower. Even after such a traumatic event, she was still willing to walk forward, regardless of her fears.

"Never mind, Alyssa. Keeping evil spirits at bay is a Quincy's mission as well. And as I said, you've helped more than you realize." So he turned to the stone gate. "So, shall we go? We still got to save Dennis."

The Rooder nodded and they proceeded.

Deep inside, however, the Quincy still felt a little bad. Not for making her recall those memories, but for not telling her the whole truth on his side. He still hid from her the reason he had lost his powers in first place: revenge for his deceased grandfather.

* * *

><p><strong>Soul Society, 1st Squad's Barracks<strong>

Heading to the 1st Squad's Assembly Hall, the 12th Squad captain, Kurotsuchi Mayuri, half-expected for an emergency captains meeting. For which other reason would General CommanderYamamoto call for him so abruptly? He was feeling kind of irritated for now, being forced to attend a meeting while he had much more 'interesting' things to look for. Nevertheless, he would have to be careful not to show it off. Dispatching Nemu to the Living World had been done in secret, without the general's previous consent. One could just imagine how the old geezer would have reacted if he ever found it out.

It couldn't have been a greater surprise to Kurotsuchi though, when, in the moment he walked into the hall, he realized to be the only person there, besides the General Commander and his respective lieutenant, Sasakibe Choujiro. Where were the other captains? Hadn't they arrived yet? Or it was meant for only them three to be there? That didn't look good in the odd captain's eyes.

"Come closer, captain Kurotsuchi." Yamamoto ordered, from his throne. His voice was firm, but the old man still kept his calm demeanor, supporting his long-bearded chin and hands on his staff.

The scientist complied so, stopping at a good six-feet distance from the general. A few moments of disturbing silence passed until the superior Shinigami spoke.

"Is there anything of relevance you would have to report, captain?" he asked, although by his tone, it could be implied he already knew the answer.

Even so, Kurotsuchi had to keep up the masquerade. "No, nothing important, General Commander." He nonchalantly said.

"Really?" the general questioned, sounding disbelieving. Then he looked at his lieutenant and proceeded. "Vice-captain Sasakibe, on the other hand, has something to report. Go on."

So, the tall, gray-haired and moustachioed Shinigami stepped forward and, keeping his stiff posture, initiated his speech. "A few days ago..."

_Late at night, walking off a local pub, Sasakibe was staggering a bit, after a few rounds of ale. As much as he admired the British way of life, his alcohol resistance wasn't particularly high. At least, not in this **Gigai** _(Faux Body)_. Anyway, having chosen the city of London as vacation resort, he was much enjoying his first time-off in a while. Especially because being allowed to take vacation after all the ruckus caused by Aizen's betrayal was nothing short of miraculous. This was probably a proof of how high of a esteem General Commander Yamamoto held him in, as the lieutenant had been postponing his long overdue vacation._

_The streets were quiet and empty, as expected at this time, the sole sounds coming from the uneven steps of the off-duty Shinigami. Albeit his senses felt kind of dull, thanks to the binge, Sasakibe suddenly felt a far away spiritual presence. Pinpointing it to the city's outskirts, he couldn't acknowledge it as another Shinigami. It somehow reminded him of the Hollows. Said presence was felt for only a few moments, disappearing soon afterwards._

_The mustachioed man considered reporting it to Seireitei, but decided against it at end. Maybe it had been just hallucination due to the drinking. So he simply headed back to the inn he was staying at._

"However, three days later..." Sasakibe continued his report.

_Doing some shopping in a local teahouse, the vice-captain was buying some tea leaves and boxes of cookies. Normally he would grow his own leaves, but the ones here tasted so wonderful, he had to take some home. As soon as he went through the exit, another spiritual presence suddenly hit his senses. It was almost in the same location as the one the had sensed before, therefore it must be something really powerful to have its energy felt this far. And, this time, he could confirm it to be very Hollow-like, much likely hostile. Would it be one of Aizen's agents? If so, what interest would he have here? Whatever the case, there was no doubt: Seireitei needed to be informed of it!_

_Quickly, he swallowed a Soul Candy and left the Gigai in his Shinigami form, hurrying to the nearest Senkaimon Gate, while the placed Artificial Soul took his 'body' somewhere else. During the course though, Sasakibe noticed two other particularly strong spiritual signatures next to the hostile one. And those signatures were not unbeknown to him: they much resembled the Quincies', who were supposed to be extinct long ago._

By the time the lieutenant had finished his report, the 12th Squad captain was doing an utterly violent effort not to scowl, as it would only confirm what the general was probably suspecting. 'Damn you, Sasakibe, and your craving for western culture! I should have expected someone else had noticed those spiritual powers! I should have!' he mentally cursed.

Yamamoto's voice diverted him from his cursing. "Captain Kurotsuchi, I also have received note that a Senkaimon Gate had been used recently, leading to the very same city of London Sasakibe mentioned. Besides, a request from your vice-captain, Kurotsuchi Nemu, to have her power limit lifted, had been granted under your permission. This is the kind of thing allowed just in extreme cases, and for a lieutenant-level Shinigami like her to request it, the situation had probably been. So I will ask once more, captain: is there anything of relevance you would have to report?"

That was it! He had been smoked out! The scientist had hoped to keep his breach of chain of command under wraps, at least until Nemu returned, but now it was pointless to insist on that. The best for him now was to confess everything and hope the samples and data to be brought by Nemu would make up for his screw. He also made a mental note to punish his daughter severely for taking so long to do such a simple errand.

* * *

><p><strong>Unknown place<strong>

Upon entering the tower, the two youngsters found themselves in a incredibly huge circular hall, ornamented with Roman-styled statues surrounding an enormous spiral stairway in the center, which led up to the top. As approaching the stairway, they noticed someone sat on one of the statues pedestals. It was a young man, with short brown hair, white pants and a characteristic blue-and-orange stripped shirt. Alyssa recognized the person almost instantly.

"Dennis!" she joyfully called out, rushing up to him.

Dennis spotted the approaching girl and stood up, smiling. "Alyssa, you've come!"

The Rooder jumped on him, almost knocking both to the floor as she hugged him tightly. "Oh, Dennis. You're safe! I'm so glad you're safe! But how did you...?"

"I've managed to escape, Alyssa. You know those Subordinates could never hold the great Dennis back for long." Her boyfriend pointed out, with a hint of arrogance.

"Well, anyway, now that you're here, we'd better get out of..." she started, but interrupted as she noticed something about her boyfriend. Something wrong.

While still hugging him, she looked up at him. Looked _up_ at him? That was the strange thing. Now that they were closer to each other, she realized Dennis stood almost a foot taller than her! As far as she remembered, Dennis and she were approximately the same height, so how could he have grown up so much within such a short period? She raised an eyebrow at the awkward situation, when Uryuu's voice was suddenly heard from behind.

"Alyssa, get away from him!" he shouted, quickly summoning his bow and pulling the string.

Turning her head back to the Quincy, Alyssa only had time to get a glimpse of an arrow flying in her direction. For a moment, she stayed in shock at the sight of her partner firing at her, but as she felt Dennis abruptly getting off her and stepping back, it was enough to conclude the shot was meant for him, not her.

The arrow, however, never hit the target, as Dennis somersaulted backwards, missing the projectile. The acrobatics didn't end though: using his body's remaining momentum, Dennis still somersaulted thrice in a row, finally landing on his feet, ten yards away from Alyssa.

The girl was simply flabbergasted with that display of agility. Never could she have guessed her clumsy boyfriend had that level of skill. Uryuu, nonetheless, wasn't impressed and just squinted his eyes at the other young man.

"Who are you?" the Quincy inquired. "Your spiritual signature doesn't match Dennis', let alone this little 'show' of yours."

So, 'Dennis' grinned widely, in a way that was very unlike him. "Oh, my. You didn't like my acting! I'm so hurt!" he sarcastically exclaimed, his voice changing to a different tone. It was a male, yet high-pitched voice, sounding almost maniac, which made Alyssa shudder involuntarily. A flash of purple light enveloped 'Dennis', and the two warriors could only watch as his figure changed.

He was replaced by a pale, slim man, dressed in a red and yellow wide-shouldered vest and some sort of loincloth, with red arm guards and long boots. From his spiked black hair, fell a long plume, and over the left half of his face, displayed a skull-like mask with a trespassing hole exactly in the eye orbit. Overall, his attire resembled that of a circus performer. "Some people don't know how to appreciate the art of Ralph Scissorman." He finished, his transformation completed by then.

Uryuu stared at the opponent seriously, but Alyssa, after the initial shock, seemed anxious, staring around the entire hall, as searching for something... or someone.

'If _he_ returned, then it means his sister also...' she pondered, at the same time catching a glimpse of another figure jumping off the upper stairway sets, right above her Quincy partner.

"Uryuu, watch out!" she yelled, pointing at the oncoming attacker.

The young man, out of pure reflex, leapt and rolled sidewards, just a split second before a blade impaled the floor he was standing. Recovering himself, he stared at his attacker: a pale woman with an odd ponytail, clad in a purple vest and red skirt, holding a pair of swords, one consisting in a katana (Japanese long sword) and the other, a wakizashi (Japanese short sword). She was almost a twin of the man in front of him, except for being female and bearing the half-mask over the right side of her face.

"You've escaped by sheer luck, Quincy-boy." Jemima Scissorwoman hissed in her also high-pitched voice, smirking sadistically at her prey.

With the appearance of the new enemy, the battlefield seemed set. It was going to be a battle royal of two versus two.

"Where's Dennis?" Alyssa inquired, prior to the fight beginning for good.

"Don't worry about your little boyfriend. He's alive... _for now_." The scissor-man answered and, with a wave of his hand, summoned a purple-colored portal in mid-air, not far from him. Out of this portal, dropped to the floor a gagged and tied up Dennis, who had his wrists bound behind his back, just as his legs.

"Dennis!" the Rooder called, running up to the restrained young man, but being forced to halt, as Ralph blocked her path.

"Whoa! Don't spoil the fun just yet, Alyssa! You may have him back when you hand over your heart for the Ritual of Engagement." He said, drawing his two katanas and closing in for the kill.

She narrowed her eyes at the approaching male assassin. For a moment, she found it strange the Scissor-siblings weren't keeping Dennis in a hostage position, like the Chopper had done previously. They would have had the upper hand if they did it. But then, she recalled that the Subordinates wanted to kill Uryuu and get revenge on her, just as much as they wanted to carry out the ritual. Hence, they were probably assuming they could achieve the three objectives, since they were attacking in pair. Their overconfidence became an advantage she would have to explore. In order to save her boyfriend, her partner and herself, she would have to defeat the assassins... and defeat quickly, before they resorted to threaten Dennis.

Jemima initiated the assault, leaping at Uryuu and attempting to cut him down with her trademark snapping strike. Using his Hirenkyaku technique, the young warrior dodged the attack, and shot an arrow at the woman from a distance. The projectile, however, didn't connect, as she suddenly vanished in a cloud of red mist. This time, Uryuu wasn't fazed by that and slowly turned around to find the scissor-woman standing over the head of a statue, keeping her balance effortlessly.

"That was a Sonido, right?" he questioned her, recalling his earlier fight against the Chopper.

"Oh, so you've heard about it, huh? That idiotic Harold did have a loose tongue," she scoffed down at him. "Anyway, if you know about it, then you must know what it's capable of. And let me warn you," she started, disappearing again in a red smoke, just to instantly reappear on the floor, a few feet from Uryuu. "I possess the fastest Sonido among the Subordinates."

Uryuu's face frowned slightly at that remark. That adversary was going to keep his hands full, so he only hoped Alyssa could hold her ground against the other Subordinate.

On the other side of the hall, wary of the enemy's skills, and considering he had to be dealt with swiftly, Alyssa wasted no time in summoning her Rooder flaming sword and getting into fighting stance. She knew, from past experience, Ralph was a quite fast opponent and arrows would do no good against him.

"A sword, huh? Well, things are getting interesting," Ralph ironically spat, as scrapping his blades against each other, producing a screeching noise and small sparks. A feral grin was plastered all over his face. He was savoring the moment, eager to taste the blood of the Rooder who had sent him to his demise. "I've waited long for this. In my past life, I've chopped 37 people alive, little girls included. I'll make you the 38th."

"You're welcome to try, monster." She bravely challenged, before the male assassin sonido-ed away from sight.

First, the male assassin went for direct slices, which were promptly parried by the Rooder. Those attacks were obviously meant only as a warmup, but despite that, he was striking viciously. Finding herself mostly on defense, Alyssa focused on blocking her enemy's blades until she could spot an opening. Suddenly, the Subordinate crossed his arms at front, preparing his snapping strike. Alyssa saw it coming and, at the moment his blades crossed, she boldly placed her own sword between them, jamming the clipping move. Surprised by the unexpected defense, Ralph didn't see Alyssa thrusting her sword tip against the unmasked side of his face. At least, not in time to avoid a cut on his cheek, which forced him to stumble back.

Noticing the stinging on his face, Ralph got mad, both by the wound and the fact she was keeping up with his speed. "You'll pay for this, Rooder!"

Alyssa had to be thankful for all those past battles, somehow. Little by little, she was getting used to those new enemies' speed. So far, she had depended heavily on Uryuu and Nemu's techniques in order to fight the Arrancars. But by now, she had witnessed enough to fight on pair with them and surely was showing some prowess. Seeing the opportunity, she ran towards him, ready to get the offensive.

The scissor-man, although, just waited until she was close enough, before digging his blades into the floor and, using them as support, jumping up and kicking Alyssa at her mid-section with his both feet. This sent her backwards, landing on her rear.

"Ha, bet you didn't see it coming!" Ralph mocked, still supporting himself with the swords. A blue aura started circling around his body and, in a fast move, he straightened his body up vertically, making a handstand over the still dug blades. "YA-HA!" a battle cry was let out.

Alyssa realized that and hastily rolled away from a trail of huge blades erupting out of the floor in her direction.

Dennis, from his current position, could only helplessly watch the battle. Due to the gag covering his mouth, he was unable even to cheer for his friends. Once again, he was feeling quite depressed inside for leaving all the dangerous work to Alyssa, while he, as her boyfriend, was the one supposed to protect her. Once again, he was being just a deadweight to her.

'Why am I incapable of anything when the time comes?' he mused, still struggling against the binds.

Meanwhile, coming to the same conclusion as his partner, Uryuu dispelled his bow.

Jemima raised an eyebrow. "You're giving up already? Aaaww, I wanted to play more!" she whined, with false childishness. "But rest assured. Since you're a pretty boy, after I'm done slicing through your body, I'll preserve your head and put it on display."

Uryuu, not caring about her taunt, just drew one of the silver appendages hanging from his belt and held it at eye level. "My life's not for your taking."

Said that, the glowing blue blade of Seele Schneider emerged from the appendage.

Excited by the anticipation of a swords fight, the scissor-woman licked her lips, showing the pale teeth as her skin. "I'll... kill... you!" she announced in a sing-song voice, followed by a Sonido.

Mimicking her move with his Hyrenkyaku, Uryuu attempted a side slash by the time he got close enough to her, but Seele Schneider managed only to cut through some vestiges of red smoke, as she had sonido-ed again. The Quincy suddenly felt a kick to his back, performed by the female assassin, who had reappeared behind him. Recovering from the hit, Uryuu whirled around and tried an upwards diagonal slash, yet Jemima simply side-leapt it. In the end, he had to hastily jump backwards in order to avoid a counter-slash, which managed to leave a small gash on his chest.

Jemima then somersaulted back and landed over a pedestal, showing a sarcastic grin. "Ha ha. Don't think I'm unaware of what that sword of yours does, Quincy. I'm not letting you touch me with that."

At that revelation, the young man clenched his teeth, partially in pain for the wound, partially in frustration. His initial plan had failed: using the same previous tactic wasn't going to work. That woman was clearly avoiding clashing swords with him due to the fact she was aware of Seele Schneider's abilities. Perhaps she had been watching the latter Subordinate's battle from somewhere. Anyway, now he would have to come out with a new strategy to get an edge in the fight.

Before he could, however, the scissor-woman extended her arms out to the side. "No matter what you do, your weapons will never reach me." She stated, just as she begun to spin rapidly.

At first glance, Uryuu thought she was going to use the same spinning attack as Harold, but she remained static at her standing spot. That's when a whistling sound was heard: the air was swirling around her, at an incredible speed. As the small tornado increased in wide and shredded into pebbles all the statues in its way, the Quincy warrior instantly realized she was creating a razor wind barrier around her. Therefore, there would be no way to fight her at close range.

Digging Seele Schneider's blade into the floor to have both hands free, Uryuu re-summoned his bow and fired a barrage of arrows at the spinning figure of Jemima. Unfortunately for him, the wind barrier was simply too strong and all the projectiles were deflected away. Narrowing his eyes in frustration once more, he pondered what to do next. He would have to act swiftly, given the tornado was steadily widening and threatened to engulf the entire hall, killing him, Dennis and Alyssa, otherwise. Hence, he grabbed back Seele Schneider and positioned it over his bow as an arrow.

'She must be creating this razor wind by pressuring and embedding the surrounding air with her spiritual power. So, maybe with Seele Schneider's absorbing properties, I can cut through her barrier.' His keen mind theorized.

Loosing the bow string, the gleaming projectile flied towards the female Subordinate and, just as he predicted, passed straight through the tornado walls as though they were nothing but a breeze. Finally the blade reached its target, impaling Jemima through the chest and immediately stopping her attack. Albeit the violent scene, Uryuu couldn't help but smirk in satisfaction. The tide had just turned to his side. It was now two against one.

From his side, Ralph heard his sister's pained scream and turned in time to see her dropping to the floor, with a gleaming sword stuck into her chest.

"Jemima!" he called out, abandoning his own battle to help his sibling.

Alyssa, although a bit baffled by her opponent abrupt retreat, quickly realized what had happened and took the chance to rush up to Dennis. She untied first his wrists and proceeded to his legs, while he used his now unbound hands to remove the gag off his mouth.

"Dennis, are you okay?" the Rooder asked, now sure that this Dennis was the real one.

"Yeah, thanks." He assured, now totally free from the ropes. Yet, his face displayed a saddened expression. "I'm sorry, Alyssa. Once again, I couldn't be of any help when you needed the most."

Despite that, the girl smiled tenderly and hugged him. "Don't blame yourself, Dennis. I love you the way you are. Just seeing you're safe is enough for me." She assured. The young man felt touched by her demonstration of affection and hugged her back, but inside he still felt frustrated. Uryuu watched the scene, being also relieved that Dennis was unharmed... even though he had to admit feeling a bit jealous of him.

A gleam of purple light from behind, however, forced them to spin back to the battlefield. Glancing at Ralph, who was knelt over his fallen sister, they took notice of a demonic purple aura shrouding his body, which was emanating to the corpse as well. Then, all of a sudden, the Seele Schneider impaled through the scissor-woman got pushed out and sent airborne, landing with a loud clang. Soon afterwards, much to the youngsters' shock, Jemima Scissorwoman jumped back onto her feet at full power, as though nothing had happened to her!

"Hurray! I'm back, lady and gentlemen!" she mocked, staring at the three opponents.

"How did you...?" Uryuu uttered, astonished by the female Subordinate revival. "I pierced through your **Saketsu** (_Binding Chain_), the core of spiritual power! Even if you managed to survive, there's no way you would be able to retain your powers."

The two siblings gave their usual maniacal laughter in response. "Sorry to burst your bubble, boy. You've hit only half of my core." Jemima stated.

"Jemima and I had shared the same Entity in the past. So when we became Arrancars..." Ralph continued.

"Our source of power has been divided between our bodies. Hence, if you want to defeat us..." the Scissor-woman resumed, waltzing in front of her brother.

"You'll have to destroy us both... _at once_!" the Scissor-man finished, as they both started laughing again in mockery.

Uryuu and Alyssa scowled at the current situation. They had just lost their numeric advantage. Alyssa even recalled being able to defeat the assassins previously, but on individual combat. Defeating them both simultaneously would certainly be a much tougher task, so it was clear the spiritual archers would have to do it together, in synchronicity, if a single chance of victory was to be expected.

"Dennis, take shelter!" Uryuu warned. Dennis, of course, didn't like being told to stay out, especially by Uryuu. Nonetheless he complied, hiding behind the stairway, since he was at least smart enough to understand that things would get worse from now on.

With the civilian out of danger, the two spiritual archers wielded their respective blades, preparing for the fight. The two Subordinates, on their side, were grinning in amuse at their now disadvantaged opponents.

"Let's make it a little funnier, shall we?" Ralph said, turning to his sister. "Jemima, let's do it!"

With an onwards motion, they threw their weapons high, almost reaching half of the stairway height. At the apex, the four swords assumed a square formation, one sword for each side, and surprisingly remained static there. As a blue glow enveloped the weapons, a square beam of equally-colored light was shot off them, surrounding a large area in the hall below, including the Arrancars and the youngsters. Only when they begun being pulled towards the swords formation by an invisible force, Uryuu and Alyssa realized it was actually a summoned portal, attracting everything inside its range as though a black hole.

They tried to struggle against the portal attraction, but it was simply too strong and nothing could be done, except letting themselves be pulled and taken wherever it led.

.

Even after so many transmigrations between different realms until now, this last one had been particularly rough on the two spiritual warriors. Proof of that was the fact they were currently lying unconscious, somewhere else.

Uryuu was the first to awaken, feeling a bit dizzy. Alyssa woke up next, also feeling her head spinning. Returning to their senses, they looked around to find out where they had been teleported this time. This was a rather strange realm: it looked like a deserted human city, with blue, although clouded sky. But the most amazing thing was the gravity direction here: instead of pulling towards the ground, it pointed _sidewards_. It could be easily noticed as they were standing over the outside walls of one of the many skyscrapers there, as though it was the ground itself!

"What the heck is this place?" muttered Uryuu under his breath.

* * *

><p><strong>I'm very sorry for the long delay. This chapter has been rewritten over and over many times, as no matter how much I've read, it never looked good enough for me.<strong>

**Hope you liked how I've depicted the Scissor-siblings. They were quite hard to portray, but in the end, a playful and sarcastic persona fitted them well. IMO, Ralph and Jemima acted like that in the game (laughing, making exaggerated moves, speaking in sing-song voices), because they took pleasure not only in slaughtering their victims, but also in taunting them in a childish way.**


	9. Up or Down, Back and Forth

**Again, I apologize for the (very) prolonged delay. Life has been quite hectic lately, so I wasn't in the best frame of mind to keep up with the story. Anyway, I hope to make up for it with this chapter, which I've been meaning to write for a while. This chapter's fight has been inspired on a episode of Shurato, another anime I'm a great fan of.**

**I do not own Bleach nor Clock Tower. They belong to Tite Kubo and Capcom, respectively.**

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 09 – UP OR DOWN, BACK AND FORTH<strong>

Astounded by the odd physical laws in this realm, Uryuu and Alyssa glanced around, their minds trying to grasp the situation. Not that they should be searching for any logical explanations when it came to the world of Shinigami and Hollows in first place. Even so, it felt strange to have the openness of the sky beside you, not above.

Walking up to the edge, Alyssa gazed down the sea of buildings extending to the horizon... or, more accurately, to the depth. It was as though an entire city had been built on a cliff side.

"Uryuu, any idea of where we are?" she inquired.

He remained silent. Despite the obviously different angle, that layout did look familiar to Uryuu. The landscape, the buildings, the sky... everything resembled a lot Karakura Town. Why it did so, he wasn't sure. Most likely some sort of sick joke coming from those Arrancars, or even Aizen.

"Enjoying the sight, brats?" a voice echoed behind them, immediately drawing their attention.

Appearing over the neighboring skyscraper walls, in a higher level, Ralph and Jemima looked down at the youngsters, grinning amused at their confused state.

Alyssa was the first to speak up. "What's this place? Where did you take us?"

"This place's called **Negación** (_Spanish: Negation_)," Jemima answered. "A realm only accessible to high-class Hollows."

Ralph resumed the talk, alternating with his sister. "Normally, Lord Aizen would send disobedient Arrancars in, as a form of punishment, but..."

"Among our vast abilities, stands the capability of moving in and out of it at will..."

"Just as transmigrating other beings to this realm as well, hence..."

"We've chosen this place to be your grave." The Scissor-woman finished, laughing out loud along with her twin.

Surprised by the explanation, Uryuu and Alyssa widened their eyes. Could a transmigration like that be actually forced? Then, Uryuu recalled the time in Seireitei, when a bunch of Menos Grandes had helped Aizen escape by using this Negación field. Therefore, it shouldn't have come as a surprise these enemies could do such a feat, so he quickly recomposed and readied himself. Alyssa, despite still being a bit shocked, at seeing her partner about to re-engage in combat, also quickly shoved these thoughts off and got ready.

That's when an unseen force suddenly pulled them both sidewards, towards the (actual) ground. Caught off-guard, the two spiritual archers let out a small groan as they slammed hard against the asphalt. Luckily they were not far from the building bottom, so the fall hadn't been fatal. Regardless the dizziness and pain, they swiftly got up.

Just then, the Scissor-siblings also dropped to the ground, but landing gracefully on their feet. Witnessing that, Uryuu finally realized. "The gravity direction... it's changed!"

"Exactly!" Ralph started this time. "You know, we haven't teleported you to this place just for fun."

"Inside Negación, we're gods!" Jemima bragged. It was a tad creepy about how these two could complete each other's sentences without rehearsing; maybe twins really shared the same brainwave pattern, like theorized. "Here, we can even control the direction in which the gravity pulls".

Barely finished the sentence, she promptly positioned herself back to back to her brother. Then, both of them raised their katanas high and crossed the blades above their heads, forming an 'X'.

"SLICE AND DICE, **TIJERA** (_Spanish: Scissor_)!" they shouted in unison.

A blue gust whirled around them, similarly to Jemima's previous razor wind. This one, however, was much thicker, to the point of completely concealing the assassins. Although neither Uryuu or Alyssa could see them, just by sensing the immense spiritual pressure, one could easily guess the transformation had skyrocketed the Subordinates' powers. From inside the haze, a flash of purple sparks briskly dispersed it, revealing the Scissor-twins in their Resurrección forms.

Both were clad in a full-torso white armor with wide shoulder pads (resembling Ralph's, but longer), arm and shin guards, also entirely white, and a tiara-like helmet that protected their foreheads and cheekbones. Instead of swords, they carried a cross-shaped boomerang each, which featured four perpendicular one-feet blades and the gauntlet at the center, resembling a windmill. The siblings were practically a mirror of each other, the only difference being the crest carved on their tiaras: while Jemima's bore the black half of the Yin-Yang symbol, Ralph's bore the white half.

The two warriors, albeit determined, tensed slightly at the feeling of their foes' current massive power.

"Well, brats. May the party..." Ralph started.

"Begin!" Jemima concluded.

* * *

><p><strong>Hueco Mundo, Las Noches palace<strong>

Sat on his throne, in a dark room, Aizen Sousuke watched attentively an hologram showing footage of past battles in the Living World. Those scenes had been previously collected and brought on by one of his loyalest minions, the 4th Espada, Ulquiorra Cifer.

Right now, the hologram was displaying the image of a girl with long orange hair, summoning a triangular glowing shield to block Yammy Llargo's punch. Quite a deed, as there weren't many individuals around who would be able to stop the 10th Espada's fist.

Next, the image switched to the same girl, summoning the same shield to heal one of her fallen companions in the battlefield. What amazed the most though, was the fact that ability of hers lay in the ordinary-looking hairpins she wore.

"You have a very interesting power, girl." He commented, while giving a sly grin.

Despite being focused, Aizen still could notice, from the flank, the approaching figure of his underling, Ichimaru Gin.

"Interesting movie, captain Aizen. Mind if I watch it too?" the fox-faced Shinigami idly commented, his arms crossed, with the hands tucked inside the sleeves.

Ignoring his jokes, the 5th Squad former captain just looked at him, deadpanned. "Any reports on the new Arrancars, Gin?"

"Nothin' relevant. Except that three o' them have already been obliterated by da Quincy and da Rooder," he sarcastically said. "And it also seems Soul Society is already aware of our acts there."

Given that mission in London was supposed to be a secret, one could expect Aizen to lose his temper, or at least, feel displeased for having it smoked out. But, surprisingly, he kept the ever calm demeanor, not appearing to be bothered in the minimum by that info.

"I see," the brown-haired captain uttered. "Anyway, it's not like their services are needed anymore."

"Oh, so ya did find a solution for that... lil' problem?"

"I did." Aizen replied, turning back to the hologram vision of Inoue Orihime.

* * *

><p><strong>Realm of Negación<strong>

Rapidly spinning, the boomerang cut through the air towards Uryuu, who dodged the deadly charge by an inch. Alyssa, however, wasn't so fast, as the weapon instantly covered the distance to her and, whilst missing, made a gash on her side, near the waist. She let out a small yelp, but fortunately the wound wasn't serious enough to put her out of combat.

"Alyssa!" the Quincy called out, realizing his partner had been wounded. This, however, distracted him briefly off the other boomerang, registering it only at mere inches from his head. By pure reflex, he avoided being decapitated by the helix blades, receiving a nasty scratch on his cheek instead.

All of a sudden, the gravity direction shifted again. And once again, sidewards, pulling all four of them towards the outer walls of another skyscraper. Using his Hyrenkyaku flash steps, Uryuu managed to reach out Alyssa and get hold of her. What he couldn't have guessed though, were the two boomerangs changing their trajectories as well, flying back at him like homing missiles.

The moment Uryuu landed on the building walls, carrying Alyssa in his arms, he immediately hyrenkyaku-ed again to escape the oncoming threat. Missing him, the weapons ended up smashing onto the building's glass panels, scattering shards everywhere.

"Thanks." The girl said, being lowered to her feet. Hadn't he caught her, she would have crashed onto the glass panels.

The Quincy just nodded, immediately turning his attention back to the fight at hand. His face frowned in frustration at their current situation. Previously, their arrows had proved themselves useless due to the enemies' speed, yet now, their swords were also ineffective against the Scissor-siblings' long ranged weapons.

'Those boomerangs don't follow a straight trajectory, like expected of a throwing weapon. Instead, they move around randomly, almost as a living thing, a hawk pursuing its prey. Moreover, the fact those Arrancars can change the gravity direction at will only increases their dangerousness.' He mentally analyzed.

Nevertheless, they knew better than trying to use their bows again, so they decided to stick to their respective blades, wielding Seele Schneider and the Rooder flaming sword into fighting stance. But as the battle went on, his efforts seemed quite fruitless, since whenever the spiritual archers attempted a close quarter, the assassins either maneuvered away using their acrobatic skills, or threw their weapons to keep their opponents distant. It was as though they didn't want to expose themselves at all, rather letting their sharp-edged projectiles do the job for them. Uryuu quickly reached the conclusion that, if he wanted to stand a chance against those enemies, he would have to catch them by surprise or drive them to a corner, from where they couldn't escape. Of course, easier said than done.

The boomerangs whizzed around the entire battlefield, forcing the spiritual warriors to be in constant alert, as a strike could come out of any direction. One of the weapons went straight to Uryuu, who dove away, making it break into the building window. Oddly enough, the boomerang didn't return. The other one flew back to Jemima, who, making a handstand with only one hand, caught it with both legs and, spinning a full circle around the same hand, used the projectile's momentum to throw it back at the youngsters. At the Rooder, more specifically.

Alyssa held out her flaming sword in order to protect herself, but the boomerang's speed was simply too much to be blocked directly. Insomuch that the impact sent her flying backwards, landing back first and rolling a few feet away.

Uryuu saw it and rushed in her aid. Before he could reach her, however, the first boomerang, which had sooner vanished into the building, emerged abruptly out of the glass right beneath him, making a gash on his back. With a pained cry, Uryuu fell over, blood spilling off his wound. For the projectile, it returned straight to Ralph's hand.

Striving hard to get up, the young warrior flinched at the crippling injury, barely managing to stand back to his feet. The sharp pain dulled so much his senses that he didn't notice the red mist appearing right behind him. Just when a pair of arms grabbed him from behind, from under his shoulders, and two legs wrapped around his waist, he realized the Scissor-woman had sonido-ed on and restrained him. With the extra weight, both Quincy and Arrancar dropped to the floor.

Clacking noises were heard off Uryuu's body, as Jemima squeezed him as a mouse inside the deadly hug of an anaconda. Uryuu gritted his teeth, trying to pry her off him, with no avail. In fact, the more he struggled, the tighter she squeezed, adding even more pain to his already sore body. Cursing thoughts were crossing his mind: why did he have to come across so many absurdly strong women in his life? First, Nemu. Now, this freakish female Arrancar.

"Let him go!" shouted the Rooder. She prompted to get over to him, but had to stop in her tracks as Ralph leapt right in front of her, blocking the path.

"You're gonna watch your partner die, slow and painfully," the Scissor-man sadistically scoffed at her. "But don't worry, you'll be following him soon enough."

Alyssa scowled deeply at that horrible scene. Her partner was going to die an excruciating death and she wouldn't be able to avoid it. She gripped tight her sword and prepared to fight her way through the assassin, but the rational part of her brain reminded that, alone, she wouldn't stand much of a chance against a power-enhanced Ralph. Both the spiritual warriors seemed to have reached a dead end.

Unbeknown to the foursome though, another pair of eyes was watching everything.

Dennis apparently had also been dragged inside Negación, a little while after the twins. As his senses returned from the forced transmigration, the first thing he noticed was the layout of this new place: an empty, topsy-turvy city. Next, he realized the figures of Alyssa and Uryuu fighting the two Subordinates. They were so focused on the battle that seemed unaware of his presence, thanks to the fact he had arrived far from the battlefield. Therefore, he did what his survival instinct primarily told him: to hide. And inside the skyscraper where all of them were currently standing on would be the best place. He was now observing the combat from an ajar glass window, which, given the building's position, looked rather a trapdoor.

However, as the battle proceeded on, and the assassins got the upper hand, a mixture of feelings started to bubble inside Dennis' stomach: fear for his comrades' safety, relief combined with shame, that he wasn't fighting alongside with them, and most of all, a burning desire to help his friends, to do _something_.

His conscience kept reminding that his friends, who had come to rescue him, were risking out their lives, bleeding out in the battlefield, while he was there, hiding like a coward. Shame finally overcame and he decided he couldn't just stay still and watch that nonchalantly. So, in an impulsive act, he grabbed a lengthy shard of glass laying nearby (one of the many resulting from the boomerangs' crashes) and, jumping out of the window, rushed into the fray.

The Scissor-siblings heard what resembled a battle cry echoing through the air and, surprised, spotted the shape of Dennis sprinting towards Jemima, holding a glass shard with both hands. Not less surprised was Alyssa, who recognized her boyfriend.

Jemima, who was lying on the floor restraining Uryuu, had to quickly get off him, as she wouldn't be able to defend herself in that position, even against a commoner's attack. The moment Dennis swung down the shard at her, the Scissor-woman back-flipped, leaving him to cut nothing but plain air. Simultaneously, Ralph also somersaulted away from Alyssa and, in a stunning display of agility that would have made many acrobats envious, him and his sister kept somersaulting over each other, alternating their jumps, until halting several yards away from the youngsters.

With the opponents far enough, Dennis helped Uryuu back to his feet, while Alyssa ran to his side.

"You okay there, mate?" he asked the Quincy.

Although still sore as hell, Uryuu replied positively. So, the brown-haired young man turned to his approaching girlfriend.

"Dennis, you're here!" Alyssa exclaimed, unsure whether to feel glad or worried for his presence there.

"Sorry I'm late, Alyssa." Dennis slightly joked.

Meanwhile, on the enemies' side, they both had a grim expression on their faces.

"Hmm, looks like the annoying brat got sucked into the portal too." The female assassin pointed out.

"With one more insect getting on the way, I think... it's time to get serious" the male assassin commented.

"Let's squash them all at once!" they both concluded.

They both drew their boomerangs and launched them on simultaneously. The youngsters braced themselves, but surprisingly the projectiles weren't aimed at them. Instead the boomerangs flew an arc to a neighboring building and dug themselves vertically in its walls, a good 10-feet distant from each other.

The Scissor-siblings then sonido-ed and landed on their impaled weapons, supporting their feet over the horizontal blades of their cross-shaped boomerangs. Then, Ralph extended his right arm towards Jemima, while keeping his left hand in front of his face, with only the index and middle finger raised up (*A/N: similar to one of Naruto's hand seals*). At the same time, Jemima had mirrored his move, with her left arm and right hand respectively. At end, a demonic blue aura begun shrouding their bodies and extended along the stretched arms, both auras meeting in the mid-distance between the two. It resembled an electric current flowing through the opposite poles of a battery.

A lot of debris started being sucked to the auras' converging point, the wind picking up rapidly. At said point then, arose a huge, shining energy sphere. Uryuu and Alyssa widened their eyes in stupor as they felt the tremendous spike in spiritual pressure off that orb. Dennis, despite not being so spiritually aware as the other two, was still agape with the scene before him.

Abruptly, the three youngsters were forced on their knees. The surrounding spiritual pressure had become so intense that they weren't able to stand straight anymore. The air had become so heavy that it was almost suffocating, their bodies felt as though they weighted a lot more than they really did.

At the assault's outcome, the two assassins chuckled in satisfaction. Their opponents were not expecting this at all.

"As you've seen, we're able to shift gravity to any direction we wish, but..."

"That's just half of the good part. By combining our forces, we're as capable..."

"Of changing the gravity's intensity as well."

That last remark left the youngsters shocked. Not only those Arrancars could control the gravity's direction, but also its intensity? How much of power they actually possessed? They weren't kidding when they said they were gods inside this realm.

The attack proceeded on for some moments until the Subordinates just dispelled it.

Looking down on the weary warriors, Ralph grinned in mockery. "How was it? What was the sensation of being under a pressure of 5G, fivefold the Earth's gravity?"

"Damn it!" Uryuu muttered, slowly getting up. Finally his mind grasped what that attack consisted of. By compressing their spiritual energy in a single spot, i.e. that sphere, they had increased the spiritual pressure in the surroundings and, consequently, emulated a gravitational rise within a wide area. Nevertheless, that explanation did nothing to ease the pain, which, added to the battle weariness and the previous wounds, was taking a toll on both youngsters' bodies.

"We're not done yet." Alyssa said, also getting up. Dennis struggled a bit more to stand, yet he did so, in silence.

"Oh, you're certainly stubborn, brats. But I wonder how long will you continue to resist." Jemima sneered.

"We're supposed to bring the Rooder alive, but I think the ritual will work just fine if we rip off her heart right after killing her." Ralph shrugged.

"Let's see if you can take a pressure of 10G, the planet Jupiter's gravity multiplied by four." Said that, the Scissor-twins extended their arms again and emanated the same dark aura to re-summon the energy sphere. This time, however, the energy spike was even greater than before. It didn't take long to the sheer gravity start acting.

"AAAARGH!" yelled Uryuu, Alyssa and Dennis, as they were pushed down on their backs and felt crushed against the floor. The weight over them was so great that the concrete walls beneath them was splintering. The pain was unbearable.

After a few seconds, the attack stopped again, so the attackers could check out the outcome. For an instant, Ralph and Jemima thought they had finished the spiritual warriors off for good, but raised an eyebrow when they saw their lying bodies still moving, even though almost on the verge of unconsciousness. Those youngsters had perseverance, the Arrancars had to give them that.

"Still alive, huh? You're more persistent than roaches."

"Well, I guess it's time for the final blow."

"Even you won't be able to withstand 100G, four times the gravity equivalent to the Sun's."

Once more, they begun concentrating their energy into a sphere, this time taking a bit longer than before. However, judging by the amount of energy being gathered, as soon as the attack was released, it would be devastating. Probably enough to crush their opponents to the bones instantly.

In the meantime, whereas the spell was being prepared, one of the fallen youngsters had managed to stand up. And, surprisingly, it was Dennis. Although not being a spiritual warrior like Uryuu or Alyssa, he was not as battle-weary as them, so he could still muster the strength to do so. Nonetheless, the Scissor-siblings seemed unfazed by him. Maybe because they didn't see him as a threat, maybe because they were more focused on the two archers.

Whatever the reason, it upset Dennis. He was tired of being considered useless. He was tired of never being able to help, whenever his girlfriend needed him the most. Of course, the last time they had fought the Subordinates, he had actually helped her, but in the end, it was Alyssa who did the dangerous job. And now, thanks to him, she was in another rough situation. By now, even if Alyssa would have wanted him to take the chance and run away, the young man couldn't accept it: in his mind, he was the one supposed to protect her.

Whether out of recklessness or bravery, Dennis started rushing towards the enemies. He wasn't sure of what exactly to do, but he _had_ to do something. Anything. So he did the only thing his outraged mind could think at the moment...

"I won't let you!" he yelled.

When he was close enough to the energy sphere, in a fit of impulse, he blindly jumped into it.

With the intrusion of a body inside it, the orb started flickering in blue flashes. A strong electric surge ran through Dennis' entire body, causing him to yell at the top of his lungs in pain. His back arched backwards, as a natural reaction to a pain coursing along the spine.

"Dennis!" shouted Uryuu and Alyssa, still conscious enough to witness what their friend had just done.

Despite all the odds, Dennis' kamikaze dash did have some effect. At least, judging by the Subordinates' surprised expression. It was as though they weren't expecting for a coward guy like him to make such a bold move. Suddenly, the orb got unstable and, in an outburst, all the concentrated energy dispersed itself, sending Dennis' body several yards away.

Uryuu and Alyssa watched in horror their comrade's lifeless body landing not far from them. Their first thought was to rush up to him and check if he was okay. However, Uryuu's keen mind realized what Dennis had just done: he had given them a window, an opportunity to counter-attack. They could go and try to help him, but that would waste the chance their comrade had sacrificed himself to create. So Uryuu, despite his sore body and heavy conscience, straightened up and analyzed the situation coldly. He eyed the spiritual particles dispersing from the Arrancar's failed assault and fading slowly in the air. It took only seconds, but that was enough to the same keen mind to figure out an strategy.

In a blink of eye, he threw his Seele Schneider to Alyssa and, as she caught it, Uryuu quickly summoned his own Quincy bow. Taking aim, he shot an onslaught of arrows at the enemies.

Seeing that large wall of azure projectiles heading towards them, Ralph and Jemima took the easiest (and most expected) course of action to dodge it: they shifted the gravity direction again, this time to the opposite it was currently pointing. That way, they simply let themselves drop out to the skyscraper across the one they were standing on, allowing them to escape the arrows. Not to mention it would throw their opponents to a deep fall.

What they failed to notice though, was that the attack was only a diversion. As they were in mid-distance between the two buildings, they caught a glimpse of the Quincy-boy gliding in the air, over a platform made of spiritual particles beneath his feet. He had created it with his Hyrenkyaku technique in order to smooth the fall. They also noticed Alyssa, being held by one of his arms, and an unconscious Dennis, tucked under his other arm. But what really caught their eyes was the object the Rooder girl had in her hands: her Rooder bow... with the Quincy-boy's gleaming blade loaded as an arrow.

With uncanny dexterity, Alyssa fired Seele Schneider. But not at the Scissor-siblings. Instead, at the spot between their still dug boomerangs, where the energy sphere once stood.

At first, the twins didn't see the point of it. Only when a very familiar magical rune appeared and started swirling over their heads, perception immediately dawned: that spot was infested with spiritual particles, resulted of the dispersion of their energy sphere. And, added to the fact that Seele Schneider possessed the ability to absorb those very same particles and Alyssa was the one who had fired it, that just meant...

Unfortunately for the assassins, perception had come too late. Even prior to their landing, the Rooder rune was already casting a powerful beam of light onto them. Given they were still in mid-air, they couldn't change the gravity direction in time. All had happened simply too fast. In a matter of milliseconds, both Ralph and Jemima got engulfed by the yellow maelstrom, their screams being muffled by the attack's thunderous noise. Ironically, their own energy had been used against them.

Hit and dazed by the release, the Arrancars, unlike the previous times, had a rough landing on the skyscraper's walls, most of their armors cracked or shipped. As they slowly stood back to feet, groaning, many wounds on their bodies were visible. That attack had really packed a punch on them.

Just when they raised their heads, the Scissor-twins realized that the enemy trio was already on the same ground as them and, very close by, the Quincy-boy stood menacingly, pointing his bow at them. Their once grinning faces switched instantly to one of dread and fear. At this distance and state, dodging was impossible.

"Licht Regen!" Uryuu called out. That was the last thing Ralph Scissor-man and Jemima Scissor-woman heard, before being engulfed one last time by a mass of light. A blue one, this time.

"IT CAN'T BE! Lord Aizen promised..."

"We were invincible!" these words wailed, gradually dying amidst the pulverizing barrage of arrows.

As Licht Regen finally ceased, the Subordinates were nowhere to be seen, not even their remains. Considering that they had been targeted by Alyssa's release, followed by a drowning swarm of arrows, that was quite reasonable to expect.

There wasn't even time to breath in relief, as the sky began to crack... literally. Large fissures spread through the overcast landscape, like a crumbling brick wall. Suddenly, the sky shattered at once, revealing a blinding whiteness behind it. It was so bright, the youngsters were forced to shield their eyes from the flash.

.

When they finally re-opened the eyes, the trio was back at the hallway in the Clock Tower. The giant spiral stairway, the statues... exactly where they had been last. The moment the Subordinates had died, they could no longer be kept inside Negación.

Now having the time, Uryuu finally sighed in relief. Obviously, however, he had forgotten about something. Something that Alyssa reminded him, the instant he heard her voice.

"Dennis, wake up!" Alyssa whined, gently shaking her unconscious boyfriend by the shoulders, with his head on her lap. "Dennis, please... you can't die!"

That's when Uryuu fathomed. They might have defeated the Arrancars and escaped that Negación realm, but everything at Dennis' cost. Hadn't he interfered, most likely they wouldn't have come out alive. Relief gave in place to grief inside Uryuu's mind. Him and Alyssa owed this battle to the fallen young man in the girl's arms.

The brown-haired man wasn't showing any signs of life. His body was limp, slightly charred by the highly concentrated energy he had jumped into, that being more noticeable on his singed cheeks.

Alyssa's cries were becoming more and more desperate. Her already moistened eyes were letting escape thin threads of tears, blurring her vision.

"Please, Dennis. Don't leave me alone! I can't lose you too!" she pleaded, embracing his figure, as though not allowing him to go any further away from her. Gripping her beloved one tightly, Alyssa sobbed uncontrollably, her head buried on his shoulder.

The Quincy only looked, helplessly, unable to do anything to ease her loss. Dennis had probably dived into the enemy's spell because he was tired of being powerless, of not being able to help. So what would have been a reckless act to an external observer, was actually a shout of despair, an attempt to prove he could make a difference. That was a pretty much familiar feeling to Uryuu, as he recalled his own grandfather's death at the hands of Hollows. Dennis was pesky, even obnoxious sometimes, but even so, Uryuu had to commend him for his determination. Unfortunately, it was a tad too late for that.

Abruptly, however, Alyssa's sobs ceased. She lifted her head to glance upon Dennis' face, like she had felt something. Uryuu, noticing that too, walked up and knelt next to them.

Tense seconds have passed, as the two spiritual archers gazed attentively at their comrade's face. Finally, the twitch of an eyebrow made the entire tension subside...

Contradicting all odds, Dennis was still alive!

Slowly opening the eyes, the first thing Dennis could take a glimpse of were two blurred figures, looming over him. Said figures got gradually clearer, until becoming fully distinguishable. He saw the tear-stained, but smiling, face of his beloved Alyssa, just as Uryuu, with a relieved expression on his.

"Dennis!" shouted the Rooder girl, hugging the awakened lad tighter. Although happy for seeing Alyssa again, a surge of pain jolted through his body at the sudden constricting move. Now that his mind was fully up, his senses were as well.

"Ow! Easy, Alyssa! I've just recovered, you know." He quietly whined, nonetheless smirking.

"Oh, sorry." She apologized, loosening her hold, yet still keeping him on her arms.

"Well, looks like I've managed to do something right this time, isn't it?"

Alyssa smile widened, wiping out a tear, as she playfully scolded him. "Of all the stubborn, bullheaded people I know... you're the worst out of all of them, Dennis Owen."

"Oh, yeah. Sue me then." He joked back.

"Hey," Uryuu called, getting Dennis' attention. "Nice work, pal."

Dennis nodded in reply. "Thanks, mate. I see you've got your powers back."

" I did. Thanks to Alyssa and another friend, who had come in our aid."

Coincidentally, said friend entered right through the hallway door, catching the others' eyes. Kurotsuchi Nemu sighted the two spiritual warriors near the stairway bottom, together with another young man, who seemed badly hurt. She walked up to them.

"Nemu-san!" Alyssa called out. "Just in time. Could you please treat him?" she asked, regarding Dennis.

The Shinigami stared at the young man in Alyssa's arms for a moment. Judging by his spiritual signature, he wasn't a Quincy, a Shinigami or an Arrancar, only a plain human. Probably the kidnapped friend the two Quincies had mentioned before. Then, she pondered whether or not to heal the wounded lad. It was not like she had any obligation to do so. In fact, she wasn't even supposed to be there now. Her mission was already fulfilled: she had been ordered to collect samples on the Arrancars, and that was already finished. Thus, what she had been expected to do was requesting a Senkaimon Gate and leaving right back to Soul Society.

However, due to that same nagging feeling that had been pestering her all this time, she rushed towards the portal in the graveyard and entered the enormous clock tower, where she re-encountered her mission companions. A strange sensation, which she could only theorize being close to 'relief', befell her, as she sighted the Quincy-boy. Beaten up, but alive.

Seeing the lieutenant's hesitation, Uryuu decided to intervene. "Lieutenant, please heal him. He saved our lives back then."

That did the trick. At the Quincy's request, all her doubts seemed to vanish. So Nemu knelt beside Dennis and unpacked her medical equipment.

"The medicines I have brought are meant to be used on Shinigami or other spiritually powered beings. Since your friend's spiritual energy isn't especially high, it will take longer to do any effect." Nemu warned.

Uryuu and Alyssa nodded in understanding. "All right. We can leave as soon as he recovers enough to walk." Uryuu said.

"No," Alyssa uttered, rendering everyone present surprised, looking at her. "It's not over yet. There's still one enemy missing."

"Still one?" Uryuu repeated, in disbelief. "But the lieutenant said that five Arrancar-like presences were detected back then. With those two we've just defeated, there shouldn't have been anyone left."

The Rooder shook her head. "The Scissor-silbings, for sharing the same Entity, were probably counted as a single presence. If all those Subordinates have returned, then it's possible that _he_ has returned too."

'He?' Uryuu mused, confused at first. But then, he immediately recalled the story Alyssa had told him before they entered the Clock Tower, so it became clear whom she was referring to.

_Her grandfather!_

Alyssa's voice cut off his thoughts. "Uryuu, I'm tired of all of this! It's time to end this nightmare! I've started it, so I'm going to put an end to it." She declared in a motivated tone.

Uryuu frowned a bit, guessing what she was up to. It was not like he was willing to jump into another battle, and Alyssa was mostly doing it out of personal feelings, not duty. But again, he himself wasn't above it (remembering his own quarrel against Kurotsuchi Mayuri) and, by the tone of Alyssa's voice, there was no stopping to her. He couldn't just let her fight alone. So, much to his dismay, he could only agree and fight alongside with her.

"I understand. I'll go with you," he turned to Nemu. "Lieutenant, when you're finished, please take Dennis somewhere safe. Alyssa and I will handle things upstairs."

Nemu, at first, wasn't particularly inclined to comply. If there was an opportunity to get more samples on the Arrancars upstairs, she wanted to come as well. Nonetheless, the Quincy's eyes reflected upon how important it was that this human was taken to safety, so, in the end, she ended up agreeing to it. And again, she was disobeying superior orders, not knowing exactly why.

Dennis was about to protest too, but, considering his obvious current state, there was no way he would be of any help this time. So he just remained quiet and decided to do as said. However, the grimace on his face disappeared the instant Alyssa knelt by him and wrapped her arms gently around his neck, keeping her lips next to his ear. They stayed like this for a while, then detached themselves. His mouth cracked into a wide smile, as she lastly gave him a peck on the cheek and turned back to the staircase.

The last thing Dennis and Nemu saw were the ascending backs of Uryuu and Alyssa, rushing up the stairs to the tower's top.

* * *

><p><strong>Since the Negación dimension (where Grimmjow had once trapped Ulquiorra) has never been actually shown in Bleach, I imagined Aizen would have made it as the Karakura Town inside Ichigo's mind. I mean, Hichigo (Hollow Ichigo) is the exact negation of Ichigo (their colors and personalities are opposite of each other). And in a place where even basic physical laws, like gravity, can be twisted, this could very well be the image of Negación. If this chapter's fight sounded too confusing, PM me any questions you might have.<strong>

**The Scissor-siblings' Arrancar weapons were inspired on the pinwheels attached to the pendulum they used to threaten Dennis in the game.**


End file.
